"You told him," said the old man. "You did. I have been living here
sixty odd year, and so far as I can recollect this is about the first
insult flung in upon something I was going to say. Weigh out his nails
for him, Jimmie, and let him go. But I don't know what can be expected
of a neighborhood that wants to go at such a rip-snort of a rush.
Weigh out his nails, Jimmie, and let him go."

"Oh, no!" Lige cried, and Jimmie dropped the nail grabs into the keg.

"Oh, yes," Uncle Buckley insisted. "Just go on with your headlong
rush. Go on and don't pay any attention to me."

"Jimmie," said Lige, "don't weigh out them nails now, for if you do I
won't take 'em at all."

"Now, Lige," the old man spoke up, "you are talking like a wise and
considerate citizen. And now, Jimmie, after this well merited rebuke,
are you ready to listen to what I was going to say?"

"I am anxious and waiting," Jimmie answered.

"All right," the old oracle replied. He cleared his throat, looked
about, nodded his head in the direction taken by Sam Lyman, and thus
proceeded: "Observation, during a long stretch of years, has taught me
a great deal that you younger fellows don't know. Do you understand
that?"

"We do," they assented.

"Well and good," the old man declared, nodding his head. "I say well
and good, for well and good is exactly what I mean. You know that's
what I mean, don't you, Jimmie?"

"Mighty well, Uncle Buckley."

"All right; and how about you, Lige?"

"I know it as well as I ever did anything," Lige agreed.

"Well and good again," said the old man. "And this leads up properly
to the subject. You boys have just seen Sam Lyman pass here. But did
you notice that he had law books under his arm?"

"I saw something under his arm," Jimmie answered.

"Ah," said the old man, tapping his forehead. "Ah, observation, what a
rare jewel! Yes, sir, he had law books, and what is the meaning of
this extraordinary proceedin'? It means that Sam Lyman is studying
law, and that his next move will be to break away from the
school-teaching business."

"Impossible," Lige cried.

The old man shook his head. "It might seem so to the unobservant," he
replied, "but in these days of stew, rush and fret, there is no
telling what men may attempt to do. Yes, gentlemen, he is studying
law, and the first thing we know he will leave Fox Grove and try to
break into the town of Old Ebenezer. And it is not necessary for me to
point out the danger of l