ll accordingly he went out
rather airly in de evenin', and laid up behind de mow, for a long while,
till he got rather tired and sleepy, and thought 'twaunt no use a
watchin' no longer. It was gittin' pretty handy to midnight, and he
thought how he'd goo home to bed. But jest as he was upon de move he
heerd a odd sort of a soun' comin' toe-ards the barn, and so he stopped
to see what it was. He looked out of de strah, and what should he catch
sight an but a couple of liddle cheps about eighteen inches high or
dereaway come into de barn without uppening the doores. Dey pulled off
dere jackets and begun to thresh wud two liddle frails as dey had brung
wud em at de hem of a rate. Mas' Meppom would a been froughten if dey
had been bigger, but as dey was such tedious liddle fellers, he couldn't
hardly help bustin right out a laffin'. Howsonever he pushed a hanful of
strah into his mouth and so managed to kip quiet a few minutes a lookin'
at um--thump, thump; thump, thump, as riglar as a clock.

"At last dey got rather tired and left off to rest derselves, and one an
um said in a liddle squeakin' voice, as it might a bin a mouse a
talkin':--'I say Puck, I tweat; do you tweat?' At dat Jeems couldn't
contain hisself no how, but set up a loud haw-haw; and jumpin' up from
de strah hollered out, 'I'll tweat ye, ye liddle rascals; what bisness a
you got in my barn?' Well upon dis, de Pharisees picked up der frails
and cut away right by him, and as dey passed by him he felt sich a queer
pain in de head as if somebody had gi'en him a lamentable hard thump wud
a hammer, dat knocked him down as flat as a flounder. How long he laid
dere he never rightly knowed, but it must a bin a goodish bit, for when
he come to 'twas gittin' dee-light. He could'nt hardly contrive to
doddle home, and when he did he looked so tedious bad dat his wife sent
for de doctor dirackly. But bless ye, _dat_ waunt no use; and old Jeems
Meppom knowed it well enough. De doctor told him to kip up his sperits,
beein' 'twas onny a fit he had had from bein' a most smothered wud de
handful of strah and kippin his laugh down. But Jeems knowed better.
'T[macron a]-uent no use, sir,' he says, says he, to de doctor; 'de cuss
of de Pharisees is uppan me, and all de stuff in your shop can't do _me_
no good.' And Mas' Meppom was right, for about a year ahtawuds he died,
poor man! sorry enough dat he'd ever intaf[macron e]red wud things dat
didn't consarn him. Poor ol' feller, h