"Now do you still mean to tell me, Farmer Jonathan, that you are not playing this trick?" asked the grocer.
"Certainly I do. But why don't you suspect some of these gentlemen?"
Then Dionysius appealed to each one separately, not even missing the boys and girls who had been drawn to the spot by the merriment; but all denied being able to ventriloquize, and said that they were sure it had been Farmer Jonathan.
Still, of course, the farmer had to deny it.
"See here," said Dionysius, "I'll buy your hay, and treat every man, girl, and boy present to Smith's best twenty-five-cent oyster stews, if you're not the man; and if you are, you are to pay for the stews."
"One, two, three," said Farmer Jonathan, beginning to number those who stood around.
"It don't matter if there are fifty of them," quickly interposed Dionysius; "will you accept my wager or not?"
"I accept it, of course," said Farmer Jonathan.
Will, having sighted the hay-wagon, just then came running up the street. "Please, Farmer Jonathan," said he, "mother wants you to come to our house to dinner, and bring Gil and Dora. May I too climb up on your hay?"
"Why, my little man, I left Gil and Dora out in the country, at my farm," answered Farmer Jonathan.