"Ah, weally—to wahd off the sun and the wain."
"Land sakes—mebbe you think you're sugar and'll melt; and you part your hair in the middle like a gal; I see it when you had your hat off."
"Weally—please excuse me, I would like to pass in."
"Set right down and don't let me drive you away. I've taken an interest in you; where's your mother?"
"Weally, ma—mahm—she has been dead many yeahs—I can just wemember her."
"I know'd it, and you've just been left to grow up of your own accord; been to college of course. 'Squire Dodd he let his Jake go off to college, and he staid just one year and come back with one of them glasses and lost it next day; the ole 'squire kep' him home after that, and set him to maulin' rails in the patch down by the hemlock p'int——"
For half an hour the dear old soul held the disconsolate gentleman in durance. I dared not look at the Major but kept my eyes fixed on the landscape, without seeing any of it.
Reaching Leadville, we searched in vain for the Deacon; his lady friends were also absent, and the Major remarked:
"The Deacon evidently is one point ahead in the game. If he does not turn up in the morning we shall be obliged to abandon him."