"D'no! Never was thar." He jerked in his bait, to pull off a weed that had become entangled in it, and from the leer he gave his comrades it was plain that I had struck the would-be wag of the village.
"How far do you think it is?" I insisted, curious to see how far he would carry his obstinacy.
"Don' think nuthin' 'bout 't; don' care t' know."
"Didn't you ever hear any one say how far it is?" and I sat beside him on the stone pier, as if I had come to stay.
"Nah!"
"Suppose you were placed in a boat here and had to float down to the Rock, how long do you imagine you'd be?"
"Aint no man goin' t' place me in no boat! No siree!" pugnaciously.
"Don't you ever row?"
"Nah!" contemptuously; "what I want of a boat? Bridge 's good 'nough fer us fellers, a-fishin'."
"Whose boat is that, over there, on the shore?"