rdly--an' lastly--if 'tain't neither weasel nor fox, it's jest
bound to be an extra cunnin' skunk, what's takin' the trouble to be
keerful. Generally speakin', skunks ain't keerful, because they don't
have to be, nobody wantin' much to fool with 'em. But onc't in a
while ye'll come across't one that's as sly as a weasel."

"Oh, 'tain't none o' them!" said Mrs. Gammit, in a tone which conveyed
a poor opinion of her host's sagacity and woodcraft. "I've suspicioned
the weasels, an' the foxes, an' the woodchucks, but hain't found a
sign o' any one of 'em round the place. An' _as_ fer _skunks_--well, I
reckon, I've got a nose on my face." And to emphasize the fact, she
sniffed scornfully.

"To be sure! An' a fine, handsome nose it is, Mrs. Gammit!" replied
the woodsman, diplomatically. "But what you _don't_ appear to know
about skunks is that when they're up to mischief is jest the time when
you don't smell 'em. Ye got to bear that in mind!"

Mrs. Gammit looked at him with suspicion.

"Be that reelly so?" demanded she, sternly.

"True's gospel!" answered Barron. "A skunk ain't got no smell unless
he's a mind to."

"Well," said she, "I guess it ain't no skunk, anyhow. I kind o' feel
it in my bones 'tain't no skunk, smell or no smell."

The woodsman looked puzzled. He had not imagined her capable of such
unreasoning obstinacy. He began to wonder if he had overrated her
intelligence.

"Then I give it up, Mrs. Gammit," said he, with an air of having lost
all interest in the problem.

But that did not suit his visitor at all. Her manner became more
conciliatory. Leaning forward, with an almost coaxing look on her
face, she murmured--

"I've had an _idee_ as how it _might_ be--mind, I don't say it is, but
jest it _might_ be----" and she paused dramatically.

"Might be what?" inquired Barron, with reviving interest.

"Porkypines!" propounded Mrs. Gammit, with a sudden smile of triumph.

Joe Barron neither spoke nor smiled. But in his silence there was
something that made Mrs. Gammit uneasy.

"Why _not_ porkypines?" she demanded, her face once more growing
severe.

"It _might_ be porkypines as took them aigs o' yourn, Mrs. Gammit, an'
it _might be bumbly-bees_!" responded Barron. "But 'tain't likely!"

Mrs. Gammit snorted at the sarcasm.

"Mebbe," she sneered, "ye kin tell me _why_ it's so impossible it
could be porkypines. I seen a big porkypine back o' the barn, only
yestiddy. An' that's more'n kin be said o'