n so they had to hire a horse and team and then somebody had to
be got to pilot it, 'cause Elviry wouldn't no more undertake to drive a
horse than I would to eat one. And the trouble was that the livery
stable boy--that Josiah Ellis--was off drivin' somebody else
somewheres."

"Yes, I saw him."

"Hey? You did? Where? Who was he drivin'?"

"Never mind that. Heave ahead with your yarn."

"Well, the next thing they done was to come cruisin' over here to see if
_I_ wouldn't take the job. Hoppin', creepin', jumpin' Henry! I shut down
on _that_ notion almost afore they got their hatches open to tell me
about it. Suppose likely I'd set in a buggy alongside of Elviry Snowden
and listen to her clack from here to Ostable? Not by a two-gallon
jugful! Creepin'! She'd have another corpse on her hands time we got
there. So I said I was sick."

"Sick! Ha, ha! You're a healthy lookin' sick man, Judah."

"Um-hm. Mine must be one of them kind of diseases that don't show on the
outside. But I was sick then, all right--at the very notion. And, Cap'n
Sears, who do you cal'late finally did invite himself to drive that
Snowden woman to Ostable? You'll never guess in _this_ world."

"Well, I don't intend to wait until the next world to find out; so
you'll have to tell me, Judah. Who was it?"

"Old Henfruit."

"_Who?_"

"Old Henfruit, that's what I call him. That Eg thing"

"What? Phillips?"

"Yus. That's the feller."

"But why should he do it?"

"Oh, just to show off how polite and obligin' he is, I presume likely.
Elviry she was snifflin' around and swabbin' her deadlights with her
handkercher and heavin' overboard lamentations about her poor dear Aunt
So-and-so layin' all alone over there and she couldn't get to her--as if
'twould make any difference to a dead person whether she got to 'em or
not, and anyhow I'd _want_ to be dead afore Elviry Snowden got to
me--and---- Oh, yes, well, pretty soon here comes Eg, beaver hat and
mustache and all, purrin' and wantin' to know what was the matter. And,
of course all hands of 'em started to tell him, 'specially that Aurora
Chase, who is so everlastin' deaf she hadn't heard the yarn more'n half
straight and wan't sure yet whether 'twas a funeral or a fire. And
so----"

"There, there, Judah! Get back on the course. So Egbert drove Elvira
over to Ostable, did he?"

"Sartin sure. When Elviry saw him she kind of flew at him same as a
chicken flies to the old hen. And he kind of spre