“Sure an’ it’s Ezra, an’ he’s been after talking so much potry ter me thot I didn’t know whether I was agoin’ or acomin’,” and Tom laughed as he took the reins from Bob. “You go see what he wants an’ I’ll be after tindin ter the mare.”
Ezra Kimball kept the one store at North East Carry and was a character noted for miles around for his habit of talking in rhyme. It seemed to be not the slightest effort for him to find words to rhyme and at the same time express his meaning and it was seldom that he spoke in any other way.
Ezra was very fond of the two boys and they had known him as long as they could remember. He was sitting in front of the office stove as they pushed open the door.
“Well, well, so here ye are at last, beats all how slow the time has past,” was Ezra’s greeting as he got out of the chair and held out a hand to each.
“Mighty glad to see you, Ezra,” Bob replied heartily, while Jack declared that their visitor looked younger every time he saw him.
“No wonder, living in this Maine air, without a trouble and without a care,” and Ezra sat down again just as the dinner horn blew. He quickly got to his feet again sayin, “Thar she blows and it sure sounds good. Nothin’ I like better’n lots of food.”
“You’re a little bit shaky on that last rhyme I’m afraid,” Bob laughed as Ezra reached for his coon-skin cap. “Good and food may be spelled about the same, but they don’t hit it off worth a cent when it comes to the sound.”
Ezra did not deign to take any notice of the criticism. In fact he never attempted to defend any of his rhymes. “It’s good enough fer me and if the other feller don’t like it he kin lump it,” he once told some one who found fault with his language.
The boys well knew that it would be of no use to try to find out the object of Ezra’s call until after he had eaten his dinner, so they quickly led the way to the mess house. But as soon as they, together with Tom, were back in the office, Ezra lost no time in telling them.
“You boys know a little feller, with a hump back an’ face kinder yeller? Little squint eyes an’ big thick lips, an’ mighty big when it comes ter hips?”