to say
usually went, no matter what different views on the subject his hearer
might secretly cling to. But he had a tender, somewhat sentimental
streak in his character, which expressed itself in a fondness for all
animals. The horses and oxen working around the mill were all well
cared for and showed it in their condition; and the Boss was always
ready to beat a man half to death for some very slight ill-usage of an
animal.

"A man kin take keer o' himself," he would say in explanation, "an'
the dumb critters can't. It's our place to take keer of 'em."

"Boys," said he, his great voice not yet toned down to the quiet, "I
say, let's divvy up the critters among us, jest us mill hands an' the
Boy here, an' look out fer 'em the best we know how till MacPhairrson
gits well!"

He looked interrogatively at the Boy, and the Boy, proud of the
importance thus attached to him, answered modestly--

"That's just what I was hoping you'd suggest, Mr. MacAllister. You
know, of course, they can't stay on together there alone. They
wouldn't be a Happy Family long. They'd get to fighting in no time,
and about half of 'em would get killed quick."

There was a moment of deliberative silence. No smoking was allowed in
the mill, but the hands all chewed. Jimmy Wright, marking the bright
face of a freshly sawed deal about eight feet away, spat unerringly
upon its exact centre, then giving a hitch to his trousers, he
remarked--

"Let the Boss an' the Boy settle it. They onderstand it the best."

"That's right, Jimmy! We'll fix it!" said Black Angus. "Now,
for mine, I've got a fancy for the parrot an' the pig. That
there Ananias-and-Sapphira, she's a bird an' no mistake. An'
the pig--MacPhairrson calls him Ebenezer--he's that smart ye'd
jest kill yerself laffin' to see him. An', moreover, he's that
clean--he's clean as a lady. I'd like to have them two around
my shanty. An' I'm ready to take one more if necessary."

"Then I think you'll have to take the coon too, Mr. MacAllister," said
the Boy. "He and Ebenezer just love each other, an' they wouldn't be
happy separated."

"All right. The coon fer me!" responded the Boss. "Which of the
critters will you take yerself?"

"I'll wait and see which the rest of the boys want," replied the Boy.
"I like them all, and they all know me pretty well. I'll take what's
left."

"Well, then," said Jimmy Wright, "me for Susan. That blame moose
calf's the only one of the critters that I could eve