"Why, James," said he, "you are making the rounds to-night. Sit down
here and dry yourself. And look at you, mud up to your knees. Why do you
tramp about this way? Why don't you ride?"

"Too heavy," the giant answered.

"Then, I gad," Gid replied, dragging his bench from against the wall and
sitting down upon it, "I know I'd ride. Do men ride for their own
comfort or for the horse's? And what difference do a few extra pounds
make to a horse? Why, if you were a horse somebody would ride you. You
are not fat, Jim; you are just big. And a horse doesn't mind a
well-proportioned fellow; it's the wabbling fat man that riles him. I
owned a horse once that would have been willing to go without corn a
whole week for a chance to kick a fat man; and I put it down as an
unreasonable cruelty until I found out that he had once belonged to a
fellow that weighed three hundred pounds."

"And you afterward owned him," said the Major, winking at Jim.

"That's what I said, John."

"Now, Gid, I don't want to appear captious, but are you sure you ever
owned a horse?"

"I bought that horse, John. I confess that it was with borrowed money,
but under the law he was mine. Ah, Lord," he sighed, "self-imposed
frankness will be gone when I am taken from you. And yet I get no
credit."

"No credit!" cried the Major. "Credit has kept you from starving."

"Tip-toe, John; my nerves are tight-strung. Would have starved! A
befitting reproach thrown at genius. Look up there!" he shouted, waving
his hand at the shelf whereon were piled his dingy books. "They never
owned a horse and they lived on credit, but they kept the world from
starving to death. And this reminds me that those sweet potatoes must be
about done. Your name is among the coals, Jim; we've got enough for all
hands. Wish we had some milk, but I couldn't get any. Dogs couldn't
catch the cow. You hear of cows giving milk. Mine don't--I gad, I have
to grab her and take it away from her; and whenever you see milk in my
house you may know it's the record of a fight and that the cow got the
worst of it."

Jim sat striving to think of something to say. The presence of the Major
had imposed a change in his forecast. His meeting of Mayo and the negro
suddenly recurred to him, and quietly he related the adventure. But the
Major and Gid were not quiet with hearing it.

"You ought to have cut his throat!" Gid exclaimed. "To-morrow get your
gun and shoot him down--both of them, like dogs. W