' straddle the meetin'
house, an' ev'ry shingle was a Jew's-harp. So I kep' mum fer a while.
But jest before we fin'ly got through, an' I hadn't said nothin' fer a
spell, Mis' Price turned to me an' says, 'Did you have a pleasant drive
this afternoon?'

"'Yes'm,' I says, 'I seen the hull show, putty much. I guess poor folks
must be 't a premium 'round here. I reckon,' I says, 'that if they'd
club together, the folks your husband p'inted out to me to-day could
_almost_ satisfy the requirements of the 'Merican Soci'ty fer For'n
Missions.' Mis' Price laughed, an' looked over at her husband. 'Yes,'
says Price, 'I told Mr. Harum about some of the people we saw this
afternoon, an' I must say he didn't appear to be as much impressed as I
thought he would. How's that, Harum?' he says to me.

"'Wa'al,' says I, 'I was thinkin' 't I'd like to bet you two dollars to
a last year's bird's nest,' I says, 'that if all them fellers we seen
this afternoon, that air over fifty, c'd be got together, an' some one
was suddinly to holler "LOW BRIDGE!" that nineteen out o' twenty 'd
_duck their heads_.'"

"And then?" queried John.

"Wa'al," said David, "all on 'em laughed some, but Price--he jest lay
back an' roared, and I found out afterwuds," added David, "that ev'ry
man at the table, except the Englis'man, know'd what 'low bridge' meant
from actial experience. Wa'al, scat my ----!" he exclaimed, as he looked
at his watch, "it ain't hardly wuth while undressin'," and started for
the door. As he was halfway through it, he turned and said, "Say, I
s'pose _you'd_ 'a' known what to do with that egg," but he did not wait
for a reply.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

It must not be understood that the Harums, Larrabees, Robinsons,
Elrights, and sundry who have thus far been mentioned, represented the
only types in the prosperous and enterprising village of Homeville, and
David perhaps somewhat magnified the one-time importance of the Cullom
family, although he was speaking of a period some forty years earlier.
Be that as it may, there were now a good many families, most of them
descendants of early settlers, who lived in good and even fine houses,
and were people of refinement and considerable wealth. These constituted
a coterie of their own, though they were on terms of acquaintance and
comity with the "village people," as they designated the rank and file
of the Homeville population. To these houses came in the summer sons and
daughters, nieces