ets ugly." (The crowd withdrew from Squashy's
vicinity.) "Me and Nick Pridgett could always manage him. Nick is
partner in a show now, and it's down to Hebron. I saw that in the paper.
When Jim McColloh says to me, 'There's old Squashy; gets on to his tears
worse than ever; you can have him for twenty dollars if you want him.' A
giraffe for twenty dollars! If you knew the show business as well as I
do you'd know that was a big bargain." Jicksy addressed this remark to
Gideon, but his partner was unresponsive; he saw, in fancy, the giraffe
harnessed to the old blue cart, the equipage was attended by crowds; but
the berry business was not a circus. "Quicker 'n scat I give him the
money," pursued Jicksy, and Gideon groaned. "Then I telegraphed to Nick
Pridgett, 'Will you pay fifty dollars for Squashy?' 'Bring him along and
the money is yours,' telegraphs Nick. So I'm bringin' him along." The
crowd cheered; Gideon's face brightened; this _was_ business. "And I've
got to bring him along pretty lively," continued Jicksy, "for there
isn't a building in town big enough to hold him, unless it's the
church."

That made every one think of the watch; but, queerly enough, just at
that moment the minister was seen running in a very undignified manner
up the lane. In dressing to officiate at a wedding at the Port he had
discovered his watch, chain, and all, in one of his coat-tail pockets.
He said that, knowing it was his duty to put it in some unusual place,
and being absent-minded, he had stowed it away there.

Grazella hushed every one's exclamations before they reached Jicksy's
ears. She said her cousin was proud, and she didn't want him to know
that he had been suspected of stealing. Her cousin! The sewing-circle
ladies looked at each other; but she held her head in the air, and
looked so stern that no one dared, or had the heart to contradict her.
Jicksy was up in the world again, and she was not going to have him
dragged down by a sister who had tended for Judy Magrath! When Jicksy
returned from Westport, bringing a dollar's worth of blue paint to paint
the old cart, the partnership was settled upon a firm basis. Jicksy said
Bayberry Corner was a place that suited him "down to the ground," and
the minister's wife had taken Grazella to live with her. That made him
want to stay; they hadn't any real own folks, but just each other.
Gideon said that seeing Jicksy had put some capital into the business,
as you might say, henceforth