or a month but ride round and enquire about roosters; and
at last he borrowed a game-bird in town, left five pounds deposit on
him, and brought him home. And Page and the old man agreed to have a
match--about the only thing they'd agreed about for five years. And they
fixed it up for a Sunday when the old lady and the girls and kids were
going on a visit to some relations, about fifteen miles away--to stop
all night. The guv'nor made me go with them on horseback; but I knew
what was up, and so my pony went lame about a mile along the road, and
I had to come back and turn him out in the top paddock, and hide the
saddle and bridle in a hollow log, and sneak home and climb up on the
roof of the shed. It was a awful hot day, and I had to keep climbing
backward and forward over the ridge-pole all the morning to keep out of
sight of the old man, for he was moving about a good deal.

"Well, after dinner, the fellows from roundabout began to ride in and
hang up their horses round the place till it looked as if there was
going to be a funeral. Some of the chaps saw me, of course, but I tipped
them the wink, and they gave me the office whenever the old man happened
around.

"Well, Page came along with his game-rooster. Its name was Jim. It
wasn't much to look at, and it seemed a good deal smaller and weaker
than Bill. Some of the chaps were disgusted, and said it wasn't a
game-rooster at all; Bill'd settle it in one lick, and they wouldn't
have any fun.

"Well, they brought the game one out and put him down near the
wood-heap, and rousted Bill out from under his cask. He got interested
at once. He looked at Jim, and got up on the wood-heap and crowed and
looked at Jim again. He reckoned THIS at last was the fowl that had been
humbugging him all along. Presently his trouble caught him, and then
he'd crow and take a squint at the game 'un, and crow again, and
have another squint at gamey, and try to crow and keep his eye on the
game-rooster at the same time. But Jim never committed himself, until
at last he happened to gape just after Bill's whole crow went wrong, and
Bill spotted him. He reckoned he'd caught him this time, and he got down
off that wood-heap and went for the foe. But Jim ran away--and Bill ran
after him.

"Round and round the wood-heap they went, and round the shed, and round
the house and under it, and back again, and round the wood-heap and over
it and round the other way, and kept it up for close on an hour.