Together the two threw all the herbage into the wagon till it was heaped far above their heads.
"How am I ever to get up?" I asked, for I had no idea of walking any farther, and I could see the man's white house ever so far away.
"Who said you was goin' to get up at all?" inquired the biter, disagreeably, but the other answered for me.
"I said it, that's who, you consarned jay," he announced, reprovingly.
When I had made them both climb up first and give me each a hand, I had no difficulty at all in mounting, but I was very careful not to thank the Jay, which seemed to make him more morose than ever. Then they slid down again, and off we started.
Once when we came to some lovely blue flowers growing in water near the roadside I told the Jay to stop and wade in and pick them for me.
"I'll be dogged if I do," he answered; so I said:
"I don't know what being 'dogged' means, but if it is a reward for being nice and kind and polite, I hope you will be."
Whereupon he bit at me once and waded in, while the older man, whose name, it seems, was Pop, sat down upon a stone and laughed.