m peevishly. "I
didn't have no chance to talk at dinner, there was so much clack goin'
on;" and he cast a baleful glance at the doorway. "I want to know where
you've ben and what you've ben doin' all these years, Calvin. Sit down
and fill your pipe, and let's hear about it."

Calvin looked about him. "Well!" he said slowly, "I don't know as
there's any such drivin' hurry. Hossy'll be pleased to stay a bit
longer, I reckon;" he glanced out of the window at the fat brown horse,
who was munching oats sleepily.

"Want to hear where I've been, do you, Sim? All right! Where shall I
set? Sam'll want to hear too, won't he?"

"Yes!" cried Mr. Sam from the other room. "Certin' I do, Calvin, certin'
I do."

"Well, how about this? Come on into the front room, Sim!"

"No! no!" cried Mr. Sim hastily. "I allus set here, Calvin. You might
set in the doorway," he added, "then the other one could hear too."

"Well, of all the darned foolishness ever I heard of!" said Calvin
Parks. "Say, boys, how old was you last birthday? Was it fifty, or only
five? Mebbe I was mistaken!"

Standing in the doorway, which he seemed to fill with his stalwart
sunburnt presence, he looked from one twin to the other, half amused,
half indignant. The brothers shuffled their feet and wriggled in their
chairs. Their motions were identical, and the furtive glance which Mr.
Sam cast at Calvin was mirrored by Mr. Sim. "I can hear fust rate if you
sit there, Cal!" said both brothers together.

Calvin Parks pulled a chair into the doorway, and tilted it at a
convenient angle. Again he looked from one twin to the other.

"If your Ma was here--" he said slowly; "but there! She ain't, and
that's all there is to it. Well, I'm here anyhow, ain't I? and you want
to know how I come here. Well, I come behind hossy. Whose hossy? My
hossy, and my waggin. Good enough hossy, good enough waggin; but
defend me from that way of gettin' about! Land is good to live on: take
a farm like this now; I admire it, and barrin' tomfoolishness, I call
you two lucky fellows; but come to gettin' about, give me water. This
rumblin' and joltin' about over clay ro'ds, and climbin' in and out over
a great wheel, and like as not hossy startin' up just as you've got your
leg over and throwin' of you into the ro'd--what I say is, darn it all!
And think you might be slippin' along in a schooner, and the water
lip-lappin', and the shore slidin' by smooth and pleasant, and no need
to say 'gerl