"He was very decent to me," continued Josie. "Acted like a gentleman.
Talked as if he'd been to school, you know."

"School? Well, I should say he had!" exclaimed the storekeeper. "Ol'
Swallertail's the most eddicated man in these 'ere parts, I guess. Ol'
Nick Cragg, his daddy, wanted for him to be a preacher--or a priest,
most likely--an' when he was a boy his ol' man paid good money to hev
him eddicated at a the--at a theo--at a collidge. But Hezekiah wa'n't
over-religious, an' 'lowed he didn't hev no call to preach; so that's
all the good the eddication ever done him."

"_You've_ never felt the need of an education, have you?" asked the
girl, artlessly.

"Me? Well, I ain't sayin' as I got no eddication, though I don't class
myself in book-l'arnin' with Ol' Swallertail. Three winters I went to
school, an' once I helped whip the school-teacher. Tain't ev'ry one has
got _that_ record. But eddication means more'n books; it means keepin'
yer eyes open an' gitt'n' onter the tricks o' yer trade. Ev'ry time I
git swindled, I've l'arned somethin', an' if I'd started this store in
New York instid o' Cragg's Crossin', they might be runnin' me fer
president by this time."

"But what could Cragg's Crossing have done without you?" inquired
Josie. "It seems to me you're needed here."

"Well, that's worth thinkin' on," admitted the storekeeper. "And as for
Old Swallowtail, he may have learned some tricks of his trade too. But
I don't know what his trade is."

"Nobody knows that. I don't b'lieve that business o' his'n is a trade
at all; I'll bet it's a steal, whatever its other name happens to be."

"But he doesn't prosper."

"No; he ain't got much t' show fer all these years. Folks used to think
he'd got money saved from the sale of his land, till Ned Joselyn come
here an' dallied with Ol' Swallertail's savin's an' then took to the
woods. It's gener'ly b'lieved that what Cragg had once Ned's got now;
but it don't matter much. Cragg hain't got long ter live an' his feed
don't cost him an' his little gal much more'n it costs to feed my cat."

There was no further information to be gleaned from Sol Jerrems, so
Josie walked home.

CHAPTER XIV
MIDNIGHT VIGILS

"Well, how is our girl detective progressing in her discovery of crime
and criminals?" asked Colonel Hathaway that evening, as they sat in the
living-room after dinner.

"Don't call me a girl detective, please," pleaded Josie O'Gorman. "I'm
only an apprentice