ll set to an' sarched the house
from garrit to cellar; but they didn't find hide nor hair o' that
bunnit. At last Sary give it up, an' sot down out o' breath, an' mad
enough to eat somebody. 'It's been stole!' says she. 'Some ornery
critter kem along while I was upstairs,' says she, 'an' seed it lyin'
thar on the table, an' kerried it off!' says she. 'I'd like to get hold
of her!' says she; 'I guess she wouldn't steal no more bunnits for _one_
while!' says she. I had come in by that time, an' she was tellin' me all
about it. Jest at that minute the door opened, and Abner kem sa'nterin'
in, mild and moony as usual 'Sary,' says he,--ho! ho! ho! it makes me
laugh to think on't,--'Sary,' says he, 'I wouldn't buy no more baskets
without handles, ef I was you. They ain't convenient to kerry,' says
he. And with that he sets down on the table--that Fan Chong bunnit! He'd
been mixin' chicken feed in it, an' he'd held it fust by one side an'
then by the other, an' he'd dropped it in the mud too, I reckon, from
the looks of it: you never seed sech a lookin' thing in all your born
days as that bunnit was. Sary, she looked at it, and then she looked at
Abner, an' then at the bunnit agin; an' _then_ she let fly."

"Poor Sarah!" said Nurse Lucy, wiping tears of merriment from her eyes.
"What did she say?"

"_I_ can't tell ye what she said," replied the farmer. "What did your
old cat say when Spot caught hold of her tail the other day? An' yet
there was language enough in what Sary said. I tell ye the hull
dictionary was flyin' round that room for about ten minutes,--Webster's
Unabridged, an' nothin' less. An' Abner, he jest stood thar, bobbin' his
head up an' down, and openin' an' shettin' his mouth, as if he'd like
to say somethin' if he could get a chance. But when Sary was so out of
breath that she couldn't say another word, an' hed to stop for a minute,
Abner jest says, 'Sary, I guess you're a little excited. Jacob an' me'll
go out an' take a look at the stock,' says he, 'and come back when
you're feelin' calmer.' An' he nods to me, an' out we both goes, before
Sary could git her breath agin. I didn't say nothin', 'cause I was
laughin' so inside 't I couldn't. Abner, he walked along kind o' solemn,
shakin' his head every little while, an' openin' an' shettin' his mouth.
When we got to the stable-door he looked at me a minute, and then he
said, 'The tongue is a onruly member, Jacob! I _thought_ that was kind
of a curus lookin' bas