d out the words, as a dentist pulls out teeth--with a twist and a
wince--"No, sir, I didn't."

"Did any one see you as you were taking your departure?"

"Yes, sir; mam saw me as I was climbing the fence."

"And what did your mam say to you, as you were climbing the fence?"

"She asked me where I was going with the big cedar bucket."

"And what did you tell her? Now, have a care, Sprigg! Be certain you
come square up!" and the bear raised his right fore-foot paw with a
warning gesture, awful to see, at the same time showing a double row of
teeth, which gleamed like crooked little dirks in the moonshine.

"Oh! Please, sir, don't look at me so with your teeth! I don't like to
see you look that way!" and our hero mashed up his face for a cry.

"Oh, you don't like my looks, hey! Hold your brine! You don't like my
looks! Aye, and bad boys never do! Never did! So, when bad boys find
fault with my looks, I just say: 'If you don't like 'em, you can lump
'em.' That's what I say. 'It's your own fault, if my looks don't please
your fancy.' I say that, too. 'You see right, and I'll look right,'
that's something more I say. Now, sir, out with it--straight as an
arrow, plump as a bullet--what did you tell your mother, as you were
climbing the fence?" And the bear again raised his right fore paw, and
showed the double row of crooked little dirks.

"Oh! if you please, sir, don't look that way," said our hero, still with
his face mashed up for a cry. "Please don't look at me so with your
long, sharp teeth! It scares me all but into fits! My name's Sprigg!"

"And who said it wasn't?" growled the bear; and then in a mocking tone
added: "Oh, he is trying to dodge me, is he? His name's Sprigg, is it?
With this for a fresh start, we'll pass on again to his age, and from
that to his pedigree; when he will tell us how his Brandywine uncle took
to preaching, because of his wooden legs. Speaking of preachers, up
comes his catechism, which, when well said, good little boys get the pat
on the head and go out to play. Thus, he was going to lead us by the
nose from point to point, till the point in point was clean lost sight
of. No, no, my sly cub; you don't bamboozle an old bear so easily as all
that. Then out with it at once, and mind how you blink it again! What
did you tell your mother?"

Sprigg would have blinked it still, but when he had looked this way and
that way at the bear, and down at the moccasins and up at the man in the
moon,