"It's more to the point to ask what you are doing here. What are you sitting on that mule that way for? What have you stopped for? Why don't you go ahead?"
"There are several good reasons," replied Ted blandly. "In the first place, if the mule won't go, I can't go. Then, if he stops, I have to stop, too. As to the reason for my being here, why, I'm looking for Benzeor."
"I don't know where you expect to find him," laughed Peter—forgetting his own anxiety for the moment in the ludicrous sight before him.
"Well, I got to thinking of it yesterday after you left me; and when I'd taken Sallie and the babies up to the captain's,—Sallie's my wife, ye know,—I jest made up my mind as how I'd got to look after Benzeor afore he did any more damage. Goin' around the country hangin' Sallies! The rascal! Old Monmouth never'll be safe till Benzeor Osburn has been 'tended to. And if I'm not the man to do it, I don't know who is. So Jeshurun and I decided to start out last night, and we've been travelin' ever since."
"Jeshurun? I don't see anybody with you," said Peter, glancing quickly about him as he spoke.
"Ha! ha!" laughed Ted. "Ye're lookin' too far afield, young man. This here fellow's Jeshurun. Whoa, Jesh! Whoa!" he suddenly added, as the mule darted to one side and turned several circles in the road before his rider could stop him.
"Yes, sir; this is Jeshurun, and a more onery little beast never lived. I told ye about him yesterday, and how he'd suddenly take it into his head to go backwards for a bit. That's the reason I ride him this way part of the time. He thinks I want to go the other way, ye see, and that's how I come it over him by jest sittin' the wrong way, too. Besides, a good twist of his tail is worth more than a bridle sometimes. Instead of controllin' him with a bridle, as any decent beast would be glad to have me do, I just have to steer him by twistin' his tail, same's I use the rudder in my boat, ye see. Whoa there, Jesh! Whoa there! What's the matter with ye, anyhow? Whoa! Whoa!"
These last remarks of Ted were caused by a sudden movement on the part of Jeshurun, whose heels were thrown into the air, while with his teeth he almost literally bit the dust. The mule was small and the feet of his rider almost touched the ground, and the antics of the pair caused Peter to laugh aloud.
"Where did you get that name for him?" he inquired when quiet was restored.
"Oh, it came to him jest natural like. Two years ago when I bought him, and was a-leadin' him home, I got him into the yard and then he just began to make his heels fly like a pair o' drumsticks. It's likely there was some noise made by him or me, I don't jest know which, and the first thing I knew, Sallie—she's my wife, ye know—and a whole lot o' folks came a-runnin' out o' the house to see what all the rumpus was about. They was havin' meetin' in the house, though I didn't know anything about that, or I wouldn't have argued with the mule as I was doin', o' course. Well, sir, if you'd believe it, the parson had been a-preachin' about somebody in the Old Testament. His text was: 'But Jeshurun waxed fat and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness.' Yes, sir; those were his very words. Well, when Sallie—she's my wife, ye know—set eyes on this here beast, she said Jeshurun should be his name, and Jeshurun it's been ever since. Whoa there! Whoa, I say! What ye up to now?"