Smiley he stood scratching his head and looking down at Dan"l a long time, and at last he says, "I do wonder what in the nation that frog throw"d off for--I wonder if there ain"t something the matter with him--he "pears to look mighty baggy, somehow." And he ketched Dan"l by the nap of the neck, and hefted him, and says, "Why, blame my cats if he don"t weigh five pound!" and turned him upside down and he belched out a double handful of shot. And then he see how it was, and he was the maddest man--he set the frog down and took out after that feller, but he never ketched him. And----

[Here Simon Wheeler heard his name called from the front yard, and got up to see what was wanted.] And turning to me as he moved away, he said: "Just set where you are, stranger, and rest easy--I ain"t going to be gone a second."

But, by your leave, I did not think that a continuation of the history of the enterprising vagabond _Jim_ Smiley would be likely to afford me much information concerning the Reverend _Leonidas W._ Smiley, and so I started away.

At the door I met the sociable Wheeler returning, and he b.u.t.tonholed me and recommenced:

"Well, thish-yer Smiley had a yaller, one-eyed cow that didn"t have no tail, only just a short stump like a bannanner, and----"

However, lacking both time and inclination, I did not wait to hear about the afflicted cow, but took my leave.