m waiting for your answer," put in the stranger, knitting his brows.

"Surely, surely, that's the very thing I was comin' to. The answer, as
you may say, is this--but step a bit nigher, for there's lashins o'
room--the answer, as far as that goes, is what I make to you, sayin'--
that if you wasn' so passin' wet, may be I'd blurt out what I had i' my
mind. But, as things go, 'twould seem like takin' an advantage."

"Not at all."

"'Tis very kind o' you to say so, to be sure." Old Zeb picked up his
pipe again. "An' now, friends, that this little bit of onpleasantness
have a-blown over, doin' ekal credit to both parties this
New Year's-eve, after the native British fashion o' fair-play (as why
shu'd it not?), I agree we be conformable to the pleasant season an' let
harmony prevail--"

"Why, man," interrupted Prudy, "you niver gave no answer at all. 'Far
as I could see you've done naught but fidget like an angletwitch and
look fifty ways for Sunday."

"'Twas the roundaboutest, dodge-my-eyedest, hole-an'-cornerdest bit of a
chap's mind as iver I heard given," pronounced the traitorous Oke.

"Oke--Oke," Old Zeb exclaimed, "all you know 'pon the fiddle I taught
'ee!"

Said Prudy--"That's like what the chap said when the donkey kicked en.
''Taint the stummick that I do vally,' he said, ''tis the cussed
ongratefulness o' the jackass.'"

"I'm still waiting," repeated the stranger.

"Well, then"--Old Zeb cast a rancorous look around--"I'll tell 'ee,
since you'm so set 'pon hearin'. Afore you came in, the good folks here
present was for drummin' you out o' the country. 'Shockin' behayviour!'
'Aw, very shockin' indeed!' was the words I heerd flyin' about, an'
'Who'll make en sensible o't?' an' 'We'll give en what-for.' 'A silent
tongue makes a wise head,' said I, an' o' this I call Uncle Issy here to
witness."

Uncle Issy corroborated. "You was proverbial, crowder, I can duly vow,
an' to that effect, unless my mem'ry misgives me."

"So, in a mollifyin' manner, I says, 'What hev the pore chap done, to
be treated so bad?' I says. Says I, 'better lave me use logic wi' en'--
eh, Uncle Issy?"

"Logic was the word."

The stranger turned round upon the company, who with one accord began to
look extremely foolish as Old Zeb so adroitly turned the tables.

"Is this true?" he asked.

"'Tis the truth, I must admit," volunteered Uncle Issy, who had not been
asked, but was fluttered with delight at having stuck to th