as if he found it a mighty int'restin' pastime. You'd most
think, livin' in an out of the way, forsaken place like that, that most
any native would be glad to stop work long enough to look over a hot
lookin' bunch like ours.

This one don't seem inclined that way, though. He keeps his back bent and
his head down and his hands busy. Now, whenever I've been out in a
machine, and we've had any kind of trouble, there's always been a gawpin'
committee standin' around, composed of every human being in sight at the
time of the casualty, includin' a few that seemed to pop up out of the
ground. But here's a case where the only party that can act as an
audience ain't doin' his duty. So a fool freak hits me to stroll over and
poke him up.

"Hey, you!" says I, vaultin' the fence.

He jerks his head up a little at that, kind of stares in my direction,
and then dives into another hill of spuds.

"Huh!" thinks I. "Don't want any city folks in his'n, by chowder! But
here's where he gets 'em thrust on him!" and I pikes over for a closer
view. Couldn't see much, though, but dirty overalls, blue outing shirt,
and an old haymaker's straw hat with a brim that lops down around his
face and ears.

"Excuse me," says I; "but ain't you missin' a trick, or is it because you
don't feel sociable to-day? How're the murphies pannin' out this
season?"

To see the start he gives, you'd think I'd crept up from behind and
swatted him one. He straightens up, backs off a step or two, and opens
his mouth. "Why--why----" says he, after one or two gasps. "Who are you,
please?"

"Me?" says I. "Oh, I'm just a stray stranger. I was being shot through
your cunnin' little State on a no-stop schedule, when one of our tires
went out of business. Hence this informal call."

"But," says he, hesitatin' and pushin' back the hat brim, "isn't
this--er--aren't you Professor McCabe?"

Say, then it was my turn to do the open face act! Course, knockin' around
as much as I have and rubbin' against so many diff'rent kinds of folks,
I'm liable to run across people that know me anywhere; but blamed if I
expected to do it just walkin' out accidental into a potato orchard.

Sure enough, too, there was something familiar about that long thin nose
and the droopy mouth corners; but I couldn't place him. Specially I'd
been willin' to pass my oath I'd never known any party that owned such a
scatterin' crop of bleached face herbage as he was sportin'. It looked
like bunches