owed upon him a keen and inquiring inspection; then
breaking into a laugh, he replied with a free and impudent swagger--

"You are mistaken, Master Jack Pudding. What says the proverb? Wit's in
the wane when the moon's at full. Now, our mistress has let me into a
secret. She tells me that you will not lose your wits, when she comes to
her growth. The reason why? first, because she never troubles herself
with so small a stock as yours, and second, because your thick skull is
moon-proof; so, you're safe, friend."

"A word in your ear," said Horse Shoe; "_you_ are not safe, friend, if
you are cotched again peeping through the chinks of the window, or
sneaking upon the dark side of the doorway, to pick up a crumb of talk
from people that are not axing your company. Keep that in your memory."

"It's a base lie, Mr. Bumpkin, if you mean to insinuate that I did
either."

"Oh, quiet and easy, good man! No flusterifications here! I am civil and
peaceable. Take my advice, and chaw your cud in silence, and go to bed
at a reasonable hour, without minding what folks have to say who come to
the widow Dimock's. It only run in my head to give you a polite sort of
a warning. So, good night; I have got business at the stable."

Before the other could reply, Robinson strode away to look after the
accommodations of the horses.

"The devil take this impertinent ox-driver!" muttered the man to
himself, after the sergeant had left him; "I have half a mind to take
his carcase in hand, just to give it the benefit of a good, wholesome
manipulation. A queer fellow, too--a joker! A civil, peaceable man!--the
hyperbolical rogue! Well, I'll see him out, and, laugh or fight, he
shan't want a man to stand up to him!"

Having by this train of reflection brought himself into a mood which
might be said to hover upon the isthmus between anger and mirth, ready
to fall to either side as the provocation might serve, the stranger
sauntered slowly towards the stable, with a hundred odd fancies as to
the character of the man he sought running through his mind. Upon his
arrival there he found that Horse Shoe was occupied in the interior of
the building, and being still in a state of uncertainty as to the manner
in which it was proper he should greet our redoubtable friend, he took a
seat on a small bench at the door, resolved to wait for that worthy's
reappearance. This delay had a soothing effect upon his temper, for as
he debated the subject over in his