der if it was!" seemed to come simultaneously from the lips of the
mother and her daughters.

"Did you ever see him again?" inquired Mr. Buffum.

"I seen 'im oncet, in the spring, I s'pose," said Jim, "what there was
left of 'im. There wasn't much left but an old shirt and some bones, an'
I guess he wa'n't no great shakes of an angel. I buried 'im where I
found 'im, and said nothin' to nobody."

"That's right," wheezed Mr. Buffum. "It's just as well."

"The truth is," said Mrs. Buffum, "that folks made a great fuss about
his gettin' away from here and never bein' found. I thought 'twas a good
riddance myself, but people seem to think that these crazy critturs are
just as much consequence as any body, when they don't know a thing. He
was always arter our dinner horn, and blowin', and thinkin' he was the
Angel Gabriel. Well, it's a comfort to know he's buried, and isn't no
more expense."

"I sh'd like to see some of these crazy people," said Jim. "They must be
a jolly set. My ha'r can't stand any straighter nor it does now, and
when you feed the animals in the mornin', I'd kind o' like to go round
with ye."

The women insisted that he ought not to do it. Only those who understood
them, and were used to them, ought to see them.

"You see, we can't give 'em much furnitur'," said Mrs. Buffum. "They
break it, and they tear their beds to pieces, and all we can do is to
jest keep them alive. As for keepin' their bodies and souls together, I
don't s'pose they've got any souls. They are nothin' but animils, as you
say, and I don't see why any body should treat an animil like a human
bein.' They hav'n't no sense of what you do for 'em."

"Oh, ye needn't be afraid o' my blowin'. I never blowed about old
Tilden, as you call 'im, an' I never expect to," said Jim.

"That's right," wheezed Mr. Buffum. "It's just as well."

"Well, I s'pose the Doctor'll be up in the mornin'," said Mrs. Buffum,
"and we shall clean up a little, and put in new straw, and p'r'aps you
can go round with him?"

Mr. Buffum nodded his assent, and after an evening spent in
story-telling and chaffing, Jim went to bed upon the shakedown in an
upper room to which he was conducted.

Long before he was on his feet in the morning, the paupers of the
establishment had been fed, and things had been put in order for the
medical inspector. Soon after breakfast, the Doctor's crazy little gig
was seen ascending the hill, and Mr. Buffum and Jim were at the door