in the wrong place, and thought it
his special duty to impress the "'fessar" at all times with his
knowledge of the dictionary. Well, after much debate it was finally
decided that "Brudder" Whitesides would "furnish de mule" and "Brudder
Jinks de buggy" and that I should start early the next morning.

The next morning I was up quite early, because I wished to start as soon
as possible in order to avoid the heat of the day. I ate breakfast and
waited--six o'clock, seven o'clock, eight o'clock--and still that
promised beast had not put in appearance. Knowing the proclivity of the
mule to meander along as his own sweet will dictates, especially when
the sun shines hot, I began to despair of reaching Mudville at all that
day; but "Brudder" Jinks, with whom I boarded, seeing my melancholy
state of mind, offered to hitch up Gypsy, an antiquated specimen of the
mule, whose general appearance was that of the skeleton of some
prehistoric animal one sees in a museum.

I accepted this proposition with haste, and repented at leisure.

I could see a weary, long-suffering look in that mule's eye, and I could
imagine how his heart must have sought the vicinity of his tail, when
they disturbed his dreams of green fields and pleasant pastures, and
hitched him to an old buggy, to encounter the stern realities of a dusty
road. "Verily, verily," I soliloquized, "the way of the mule is hard."
But, putting aside all tender feelings, I jumped into the buggy and
grasping a stick of quite ample proportions began to urge his muleship
on his way.

Nothing of much consequence hampered our onward journey except the
breaking down of three wheels and the excessive heat of the sun, which
great luminary seemed not more than ninety-five miles away.

I arrived at Mudville sometime between 12 M. and 6 P. M. After having
finished my business and having bountifully fed my mule on water and
what grass he could nibble from around his hitching post, I bought a
large watermelon and started for home. Before I was out of sight of the
town, I began to have serious misgivings about reaching home before a
very late hour. In the morning by various admonitions and applications
of the hickory, I had been able to get my mule into a jog trot, but on
the homeward journey he would not even get up a respectable walk. Well,
we trudged on for two hours or more, when to my dismay he
stopped,--stopped still. As the hour was getting late and it was growing
dark, I began ad