If the scout gazed upon him curiously, the new-comer returned it with interest. Evidently he had never seen such an extraordinary figure as that presented by the scout. Evidently he wished to make some remarks upon him, but he contented himself with a single exclamation.
“Whew!”
“Who are you?” demanded Dick, a little impatient of the scrutiny the other had bestowed upon him, forgetting that he himself had been guilty of the same.
“Wal, I don’t mind telling ye,” answered the Yankee, as he went on with his toilet. “My name is Peleg Parker, and I hail from New Hampshire. I was raised in Pigwaket, right up under the shadder of the White Mountains. I couldn’t make money fast enough up there, and so I took to peddling, and so wandered away out into these ’ere parts. My pack is up in the garret, and I’ve got as good an assortment in it as ever was seen this side of the mountains. Prehaps I can trade a little with ye in the morning? Will sell cheaper than dirt. There didn’t any of you see that button drop down here, did ye? I wouldn’t lose it for a fourpence, for I couldn’t match it out in these parts.”
Mrs. Wilson replied in the negative, and then Ned Tapley said:
“You don’t know, perhaps, the danger we’re in. We’re expecting every moment that the savages will attack the cabin.”
“I know it, and I’m worried nigh about to death about my pack. If the red-skins get hold on it I’m ruined. My hull fortin is in it—ev’ry darned cent I’m worth. Say, Mister, you don’t think they can break in here, do you?”
This was addressed to Dick, who replied somewhat angrily:
“I wouldn’t wonder if they did. They’ll do their best to, at any rate. You had better worry about yer scalp than about that ’ere pack o’ your’n. If you wa’n’t asleep when I came here, you wouldn’t ask such a question as that.”
“Asleep! I’ll be darned if I’ve slept a wink to-night. I knew the young folks were courting down here, and it put me in mind of the time when I used to be in that business myself. I’ve courted more’n a dozen gals, off and on, up in New Hampshire, and nigh about every one of ’em give me the mitten in the end.”