"I s'posed that I had picked up a man who wanted a chance to make a few dimes, but you don't seem inclined to come to time. Here's my specie, and there's more where that came from."
"Never mind the wager," I said; "you don't belong to the New England States, I'll take my oath, so you can't catch us in that trap."
"That's so," replied the teamster, with a chuckle; "but what makes you think so?"
"In the first place, you haven't the accent of a genuine Yankee," I replied; "and in the next place, a Yankee would not have exposed a single dollar until he was certain of the company that he was in. Am I right?"
"Hang me if you ain't, stranger," cried the teamster, in a burst of generous enthusiasm. "If you ain't a Yankee, there ain't one in the country."
I pleaded guilty to the charge, and got a warm shake of the hand for my nationality's sake.
"I ain't a Yankee, that's a fact," my new acquaintance said; "but I belong to Yankee land, and that's honor enough, by thunder. I'm an Ohio boy, and just looking round the world to see how it's made afore I settle on dad's farm, and tie up for life. If I can pick up a few dimes afore I go back so much the better, and if I don't it won't break my heart."
We talked with our new acquaintance for near half an hour for the purpose of breathing our horses, and picking up all the news that had transpired during our absence. I gave him some good advice, and informed him that sleeping in his cart while travelling was not the safest plan that he could adopt, and after a few moments' reasoning he seemed to think so himself. We bade him good night, and resumed our journey, and just as day was breaking we drew up our tired horses before the store, which looked unchanged since our absence. All was quiet and still in the neighborhood, but we observed that an unusually large number of police were on duty in the streets, and that many of them were strangers, and eyed us with suspicious looks, as though not certain which party we belonged to.
"I'll hold the horses while you rap Fred up," Mr. Brown said, dismounting.
I was too impatient to see my friend to need a second bidding. I applied my foot to the door, and gave a thundering kick, that made two or three suspicious policemen, who had followed us closely, imagine we were starving for something to eat.