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It was unnecessary for Marvin to report, for early next morning Kent Pilkinton, owner of a hill farm on the out-skirts of a village a farm on which he succeeded in raising the most ample crop of whiskers in Coldriver, and little else, came diffidently up to Scattergood as he sat in front of his hardware store. "Morning Kent," said Scattergood. "Come to look at mowin' machines, I calc'late."
He never fails with a friendly word, or it may be a jest a foolish jest but honest, for any one gentle or simple he may meet. More than once has he boarded me in that fashion. What do you think he said to me, now, one day as I was a mowin' of the grass in the court, close by the white horse that spout up the water high as a house from his nose-drills?
"It was his own money, every cent of it, hard-earned money, meant to pay off his debts; and I can say it because I helped him earn it, mowin' and reapin' beside him in the harvest-field, thrashin' beside him in the barn, eatin' at his table, and sleepin' under his roof.
'Thank you, said the doctor. 'I will make a note of it. 'It wants nerve, seemin' to me. Roger Olver rubbed his chin. 'That is understood. 'For my part, if it happened I had a stick, I'd slash out at the beggar's forelegs so an' keep slashin' same as if I was mowin' grass. Or, if I hadn' a stick, I'd kick straight for his forelegs an' chest; he's easy to cripple there, an' he knows it.
"Couldn't you have waded through it before it got too high?" "Waded? Not a wade; de water was rough an deep, an de bottom was stones dat I'd slipped oba an almost broke my ole head, sides bein drownded as dead as a herrin. Why, what you tink dis ole nigga's made ob? I'm not a steam injine, nor a mowin machine, nor a life boat. I'm ony a ole man, an shaky in de legs too, mind I tell you."
"Out in the medder, then, if you're so derned pertikeller," retorted the youngster, somewhat piqued; "the mowin' machine lopped it off." The old lady rose and restored the head into the hands of the young man.
"You ain't wuth but ten dollars at the most, an' I won't pay you that for you busted my mowin' machine, an' it'll take that t' pay for fixin' it." "That mowing machine was in bad order when you had me take it out," replied the young fellow, "and you know it. It was simply an accident that it broke, and not my fault in the least." "Well, you'll pay for it, just the same," was the sneering reply.
But I spozed the men wuz off to the wars fightin' and gittin' killed to satisfy some other man's ambition, or settlin' some other men's quarrels. Josiah sez, smilin' happily, "Wouldn't it look uneek to see Philury mowin' in our oat and wheat fields, and you and Sister Bobbett rakin' after and loadin' grain and runnin' the thrashin' machine?"
"Yes, Master Philup, mowin' again." "Why, you've got the pauper there!" cried Philip. "I say, did you know he was a pauper?" "No," said Bunce, "I didn't know. Do you want your legs ampytated?" "No, stoopid, of course I don't." "Then get outer the way or I shall take 'em off like carrots." "Get out!" said Philip, as I saw that he was watching me.
He never fails with a friendly word, or it may be a jest a foolish jest but honest, for any one gentle or simple he may meet. More than once has he boarded me in that fashion. What do you think he said to me, now, one day as I was a mowin' of the grass in the court, close by the white horse that spout up the water high as a house from his nose-drills?
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