“Mebbe it’s because Hime Look has settled up country on the Snell farm,” observed Marriner Amazeen with a bit of malice.
“Reports is that he’s givin’ ’em a little flavour of circus right along in that section,” said Dow Babb.
“Feller from that way was tellin’ me that Hime has been doin’ a job of breakin’ up with that el’phunt hitched to the plow. Hime allowed as how P. T. Barnum tells in his book that he used an el’phunt to plow with, and he wa’n’t goin’ to let no P. T.‘s git ahead of him. Ev’ry hoss that come along past stuck up ears and tail and tried to climb a tree and pull the tree up after. Feller said that one of the neighbours went to Hime fin’ly and said that he’d been readin’ in some tormented book erruther that in old days the Romans, or some of them old sirs, whoever they be, used to sacrifice animiles when there was any good luck had come to ’em and they wanted to celebrate account of it. Neighbour hinted that marryin’ Abby Snell was good enough luck for any man to brag of, and wanted to know why Hime didn’t offer Imogene up as a sacrifice. Told Hime the neighbours would git up a bee, if he did, and club in with him mighty enthusiastic.”
Babb unlocked his legs and chuckled.
“Hime spoke up and told the neighbour as how ’twas Imogene that had made the match ’tween him and Abby, and that if it come to a choice of gittin’ along without the el’phunt or a cook stove Abby’d let the cook stove go ev’ry time. Didn’t get much satisfaction out of Hime, now I tell ye!”
“I donno of any one that ever did,” said Marriner Amazeen.
“Cap Nymp’ Bodfish licked him once, time o’ the May gale, there,” stated Uncle Buck. “Cap Nymps told me he did.”
“Say, do you s’pose if he’d ever licked Hime Look he’d a-hid off in the woods all next day and then sold the Effort for a song and scooted to Hackenny, for all we know of him here?” demanded Amazeen. “No, s’r, there was no one ever done Hime Look in this world, except his own brother in town meetin’, and then t’was Look eat Look.”
“Curi’s how things has all come around the last year,” mused Lysimachus. “The Squire married to Sylvene and settled in the Willard house and the old Judge actin’ as proud of him as——”
Brickett interrupted here, coming from the inside of the store, where he had been perusing his daily paper.