“I’m positive I am not.”
“And I’m positive ye are,—and the only way to sittle the question according to common sinse is to toss up. What do ye say?”
“I don’t see how that can settle any question; but have it your own way.”
Mike took a Lincoln penny from his pocket and balanced it in his hand.
“If it comes down a hid, ye take my course; if a tail, yours.”
Hoke nodded to signify he agreed, and the other flipped the coin aloft, each watching as it turned over rapidly and fell upon the leaves between them, but lo! it rested on its edge, being supported vertically against a pine cone. In other words it was neither a head nor tail, but a “cock.”
Usage requires that in such a case a new toss must be made, but when Mike picked up the penny he shoved it into his pocket and shook his head.
“The maaning of that,” he explained, “is that we are both wrong.”
“How then shall we find the true course?”
“Make a guess, as I used to do in answering the taycher’s questions—Hist!”