, and he says softly to Billy, "Come
along," he says; "it's all right, we'll be there bimeby. Don't you see
how I'm gittin' on a'ready?" And that was the ways things went every
day.

Jack never gin up; he climbed and climbed, and walked and walked, jest's
if he see the place he was goin' to, and 's if it got nearer and nearer.
And every night, when they took him off, he was as pleased with his
day's journey 's if he'd gone twenty mile. "I've done first-rate
to-day," he says to cross, kickin' Billy. "The roads was good, and I
never picked up a stone nor dropped a shoe, and I got on a long piece.
I'll be there pretty soon," says he. "Why," says Billy, "what a foolish
fellow you be! You've been in the same place all day, and ain't got on
one mite. What do you mean by _there_? Where is it you think you're
goin', anyway?"

"Well, I don't 'zackly know," says Jack, "but I'm gittin' there real
spry. I 'most see it one time to-day." He didn't mind Billy's laughin'
at him, and tryin' to keep him from bein' sat'sfied. He jest went on
tryin' and tryin' to get there, and hopin' and believin' he would after
a spell. He was always peart and comfortable, took his work real easy,
relished his victuals and drink, and slept first rate nights. But Billy
he fretted and scolded and kicked and bit, and that made him hot and
tired, and got him whipped, and hollered at, and pulled, and yanked. You
see, he hadn't got anything in his mind to chirk him up, for he didn't
believe anything good was comin', as Jack did; he 'most knowed it
wasn't, but Jack 'most knowed it was. And Jack took notice of things
that Billy never see at all. He see the trees a-growin', and heered the
birds a-singin', and Injun Brook a-gugglin' along over the stones, and
he watched the butterflies a-flyin', and sometimes a big yeller 'n black
one would light right on his back. Jack took notice of 'em all, and he'd
say, "I'm gettin' along now, certin sure, for there's birds and posies
and flyin' things here I never see back along. I guess I'm most there."
"'There, there!'" Billy'd say. "Where is it, anyway? I ain't never seen
any o' them posies and creaturs you talk about, and I'm right side of
you on these old boards the whole time."

And all the children round there liked Jack. They'd watch the two horses
workin', and they see Billy all cross and skittish, holdin' back and
shakin' his head and tryin' to kick, never takin' no notice o' them nor
anything. And, again, they s