The constable did not much relish hearing the badge of an office which he esteemed one of the most important in the State thus lightly spoken of and degraded to a common stick; he, therefore, replied somewhat shortly—
"I guess, Mr. Gladding, you don't see the head of my staff, do ye?"
"Don't I?" said Gladding. "I know old Authority-by-the-State-of-Connecticut a mile off, without seeing his head, I rather think. But what are you up to now?"
Basset, who, though no Solomon, had too much wit to admit every one into his confidence, answered:
"O, nothing; I was only looking for Squire Miller."
"Why," said Gladding, "he only left the store a minute ago. I say
Basset, you got a warrant agin old Holden?"
"Why," said Basset, "what makes you ask?"
"Because," replied Gladding, mischievously, who strongly suspecting an intention to arrest Holden, and knowing the constable's cowardice, was determined to play upon his fears, "I shouldn't like to be in your skin when you go for to take him."
"I'd like to see the man what would dare to resist when I showed him my authority," said the constable. "I guess I'd make him cry copeevy in less than no time."
"Well," said Gladding, who all this while had been leisurely whittling a bit of white pine, "well, Basset, you know your own business best, and I'm not a man to interfere. My principle is, let every man skin his own skunks. You haint no wife nor children, have you?"