"If anybody tells you heavin'
bundles of laths aboard a truck-wagon ain't hard work you tell him for
me he's a liar, will ye. Whew! And I had to do the heft of everything,
'cause Cahoon sent that one-armed nephew of his to drive the team. A
healthy lot of good a one-armed man is to help heave lumber! I says to
him, says I: 'What in time did--' Eh? Why, hello, Helen! Good mornin'.
Land sakes! you're out airly, ain't ye?"

The young lady nodded. "Good morning, Issachar," she said. "Yes, I am
pretty early and I'm in a dreadful hurry. The wind blew our kitchen door
back against the house last night and broke the hook. I promised Father
I would run over here and get him a new one and bring it back to him
before I went to school. And it's quarter to nine now."

"Land sakes, so 'tis! Ain't--er--er--what's-his-name--Albert here, found
it for you yet? He ain't no kind of a hand to find things, is he? We'll
have to larn him better'n that. Yes indeed!"

Albert laughed, sarcastically. He was about to make a satisfyingly
crushing reproof to this piece of impertinence when Mr. Price began to
sniff the air.

"What in tunket?" he demanded. "Sn'f! Sn'f! Who's been smokin' in here?
And cigarettes, too, by crimus! Sn'f! Sn'f! Yes, sir, cigarettes, by
crimustee! Who's been smokin' cigarettes in here? If Cap'n Lote knew
anybody'd smoked a cigarette in here I don't know's he wouldn't kill
'em. Who done it?"

Albert shivered. The girl with the dark blue eyes flashed a quick glance
at him. "I think perhaps someone went by the window when it was open
just now," she suggested. "Perhaps they were smoking and the smoke blew
in."

"Eh? Well, maybe so. Must have been a mighty rank cigarette to smell up
the whole premises like this just goin' past a window. Whew! Gosh!
no wonder they say them things are rank pison. I'd sooner smoke
skunk-cabbage myself; 'twouldn't smell no worse and 'twould be a dum
sight safer. Whew! . . . Well, Helen, there's about the kind of hook I
cal'late you need. Fifteen cents 'll let you out on that. Cheap enough
for half the money, eh? Give my respects to your pa, will ye. Tell him
that sermon he preached last Sunday was fine, but I'd like it better if
he'd laid it on to the Univer'lists a little harder. Folks that don't
believe in hell don't deserve no consideration, 'cordin' to my notion.
So long, Helen . . . Oh say," he added, as an afterthought, "I guess
you and Albert ain't been introduced, have ye? Albert, thi