CHAPTER XXXVII.
WHAT IS A HUMP-DURGIN?
hen the boys returned to Buck Raulet's shack, which he had insisted they should share with him until they could build one of their own, the first question Alaric asked was in regard to his new employment.
"What is a hump-durgin?"
"Ho, ho! With all your learning don't you know what a hump-durgin is? Well, I am surprised, for it's one of the commonest things. Still, if you don't really know, I'll tell you. A genuine hump-durgin is a sort of a cross betwixt a boat and a mule."
"A boat and a mule?" repeated Alaric, more perplexed than ever.
"That's what I said. You see, it is something like a boat. I might say a steamboat, or perhaps a canal-boat would be more like it, and it is always sailing back and forth. It often rolls and pitches like it was in a heavy sea; but at the same time it lives on dry land and never goes near the water. It also rears and bucks, and jumps from side to side, and tries its best to throw its rider, same as a mule does, and it wouldn't look unlike one if it only had legs, and a tail, and ears, and hair, and a bray."
"Humph!" interrupted Bonny, who had been an interested listener to this vague description of a hump-durgin. "A log of wood might look like a hump-durgin if it had all those things."
"Right you are, son! A log of wood might look like a hump-durgin, and then again it mightn't. Same time I've often thought that some hump-durgins wasn't much better than logs of wood, after all. Anyway, now that I've described the critter so that you know all about him, you can see why the boss has decided to put our young friend here in charge of one."