an', anyway, I'm hanged if I'm
goin' to stand by an' see a woman scandalized behind her back--if yer
must have it I'll tell yer. Dave said that the fish didn't smell no
worse than your place anyway."

We got away from there then. She cut up too rough altogether. I can't
tell you what she said--I ain't got the words. She went up to the house,
an' we seen the farm-hand harnessin' up the horse, an' we reckoned she
was goin' to drive into town straight away an' take out a summons agenst
Dave Regan. An' jest then Dave hisself comes ridin' past--jest when
he was most wanted, as usual. He always rode fast past Mrs Hardwick's
nowadays, an' never stopped there, but Billy shouted after him:

"Hullo, Dave! I want to speak to yer," shouts Billy. An' Dave yanks his
horse round.

"What is it, Billy?" he says.

"Look here, Dave," says Billy. "You had your little joke about the
chimbly, an' we had our little joke about the fish an' Mrs Hardwick,
so now we'll call it quits. A joke's a joke, but it can go too far, an'
this one's gettin' too red-hot altogether. So we've fixed it up with Mrs
Hardwick."

"What fish an' what joke?" says Dave, rubbin' his head. "An' what have
yer fixed up with Mrs Hardwick? Whatever are yer talkin' about, Billy?"

So Billy told him all about us sendin' the stinkin' fish to Mrs Hardwick
by Tommy, an' sayin' Dave sent 'em--Dave rubbin' the back of his neck
an' starin' at Billy all the time. "An' now," says Billy, "I won't say
anything about them bullicks; but I went up and seen Mrs Hardwick this
mornin', an' told her the whole truth about them fish, an' how you
knowed nothin' about it, an' I apologized an' told her we was very
sorry; an' she says she was very sorry too on your account, an' wanted
to see yer. I promised to tell yer as soon as I seen yer. It ought to be
fixed up. You ought to go right up to the house an' see her now. She's
awfully cut up about it."

"All right," says Dave, brightenin' up. "It was a dirty, mean trick
anyway to play on a cove; but I'll go up an' see her." An' he went there
'n' then.

An' about fifteen minutes arterwards he comes boltin' back from the
house one way an' his horse the other. The horse acted as if it had a
big scare, an' so did Dave. Billy went an' ketched Dave's horse for him,
an' I got Dave a towel to wipe the dirty dish-water off of his face an'
out of his hair an' collar, an' I give him a piece of soap to rub on the
places where he'd been scalded.

"Why