“In the big coach,” said Davie, bobbing his head. He didn’t think it was necessary to designate whose vehicle, as Badgertown boasted only one.
Pretty soon he was stitching away and cobbling at a great rate, Davie swinging his stocking-foot.—Page [433].
“Not Miss Parrott’s!” exclaimed Mr. Beebe.
“Yes,” said Davie, bobbing his head again.
“Well, I never! She didn’t go, did she?” exclaimed the little shoemaker.
“No,” this time Davie shook his head.
“I thought not. I sh’d as soon ’xpect one of th’ tombstones in th’ buryin’-ground to get sociable as her. Well, well—” here Mr. Beebe picked up his needle and began to pull it briskly in and out of the leather. “Now you must tell me all about it. Begin at th’ beginnin’, Davie, an’ reel off.”
So Davie began, and the little shop got very merry, Davie stopping every now and then to laugh at the antics of the bears, and the little ponies and the elephants and the funny men who wore white clothes with red spots over them, and who had holes for eyes, and who kept walking up and down saying things to make people laugh, or who were tumbling off all the while from the donkeys’ backs. And the little shoemaker wanted dreadfully to stop cobbling to hear the better, but he knew Mrs. Pepper expected her boy home, so he kept on with his work, every now and then grunting out, “Well I never!” and “Who ever did!” and the like.
So of course no one heard the door open, and the big woman who walked in, exclaimed, “Goodness, Mr. Beebe, what’s th’ matter!”