ound that bend," went on the entertainer, expectorating with
deliberation before he continued, "a buggy tried to pass a hay-wagon. It
was a brand-new buggy, cost all of $250, and the first time he'd took
his family out in it. Smashed it to kindlin' wood. The woman threw the
baby overboard and it never could see good out of one eye afterward. She
caught on a tree when she was rollin' and broke four ribs, or some such
matter. He'd ought to a-knowed better than to pass a hay-wagon where it
was sidlin'. Good job, says I, fer havin' no judgment though I was one
of his pall-bearers, as an accommodation."

Aunt Lizzie was beyond exclaiming, and Miss Mercy's toes were curling
and uncurling, though she preserved a composed exterior.

After setting the brake, McGonnigle went on humorously, gesticulating
spaciously while the slack of the lines swung on the single-tree:

"On this here hill the brake on a dude's automo-bubbly quit on him. When
he come to the turn he went on over. Ruined the car, plumb wrecked it,
and it must a cost $1,500 to $2,000. They shipped his corp' back East
somewhere."

Pale, and shaking like an aspen, Aunt Lizzie clung tightly to Miss
Mercy. The scenery was sublime, but they had no eye for it. Their gaze
was riveted upon the edge of the precipice some six or eight inches from
the outer wheels of the surrey, and life at the moment looked as sweet
as it seemed uncertain.

Driving with one hand and pointing with the other, McGonnigle went on
with the fluency for which he was celebrated:

"That sharp curve we're comin' to is where they was a head-on collision
between a chap on a motorcycle and a traction en-jine they was takin'
through the canon. He was goin' too fast, anyhow--the motorcycle--and it
jest splattered him, as you might say, all over the front of the
en-jine."

Mr. McGonnigle put the lines between his knees and gripped them while he
readjusted his hat with one hand and pointed with the other:

"You see that hangin' rock? There where it sticks over? Well, sir, two
cayuses tryin' to unload their packs bounced off there and----"

A shriek in his ear interrupted McGonnigle at this juncture. He turned,
startled, to see Aunt Lizzie with her fingers in her ears screaming that
she was going to have hysterics.

To prove that she was a woman of her word, she had them, while Mr.
McGonnigle, utterly unconscious that he was the cause, regarded her in
astonishment.

"She's got a fit," he said to Wal