't would be. Sech like, fur instance, es th' new way o' gettin' merried, though I hain't sayin', mind you, it hesn't advantages to recommend it."

At the first word of marriage, Ashgrave's watchfulness was roused and he flushed hot with anger. He bethought himself, however, that if Padanaram was giving any attention to him and his marriage, as it probably was, here was a chance, not to be thrown away, of hearing its verdict. He did his best to give a soft answer, but the nearest he could come to it was:

"I s'pose Padanaram can't mind its own business, but has got to meddle with my affairs.'

"Wall," said Blanket, crossing his knees and resting an elbow on the upper one as a support to his head, "I've lived in this world mor 'n sixty year, an' I hain't seen the time yet when other folk's affairs war n't more pertickelerly everybody else's bisness 'n anything else in the world. Ef we did n't hev to 'tend to some other folk's consarns, most on us would hev a mighty lazy time on it, I'm thinkin'."

"Most Padanaram would," asserted Ashgrave.

"Padynarum," said Blanket, "ain't big, fur a fac'; but so fur as the scripchurel duty o' lookin' a 'ter your neighbour's consarned, it don't knuckle to nobody."

"And so it's been meddling with my affairs?"

"It's ben a sorter watchin' to see how this ere new kinder marriage works. Thar 's them as thinks 't would save a heap o' quarrellin' an' fussin', an' thar's them thet ses but fur the name on 't, a feller might jest as well not be merried at all. Some think Phil Buff'nt'n hit the nail on the head, but mind ye, I bean't sayin' one way nor tother."

"Phil Buffington!" said Ashgrave, sure that the name

carried some unkindness. "I'd as soon think of your old hoss saying something sensible as Phil."

"Wall, ye know Balaam's ass did speak —

"Yes, and asses have been keeping the thing up ever since."

"I hain't gainsayin' thet," answered Blanket. “What Phil ses is that 't ain't so bad when a gal won't hev ye, 'cause thar 's others; but 's mighty tuff when yer own wife won't hev ye, 'cause ye 're tied up so 's ye can't get nobody else."

Thus, under cover of Phil Buffington's jibe, Ashgrave learned what Padanaram was saying of his peculiar marriage, and it came sharply to him that it was just what he might have expected. The stigma of rejection, which he had sought to place on Amanda, had been turned against himself by the most natural process in the world.

"I said the whole breed of asses had been talking since Balaam's time," he retorted angrily.

"Seem 's though some on em 'd ben busy doin' things tu," suggested Blanket.

"Excepting minding their own business!"

Kinder

"Wall, thet 's 'cordin' to how ye look at it. seems tu me 's ef it was yer business to marry a decent gal, like 'Mandy Seagrave, a'ter you'd got her in the scrape you hed, an' I swan I dunno 's I blame her one mite fur not wantin' tu hev a 'tarnal thing tu du 'th you a'terward."

"I 'spose you 've all been too great fools even to think that perhaps 't was me would n't have anything to do with her," growled Ashgrave.

"Wall look a here Joe," chuckled Blanket, "thar be some things that a orthodox Christian can't swaller besides the Pope o' Rome. Folks kinder think they

know ye, an' they guess you hain't made thet way, 'specially when they hear tell o' your carryin's on with the Plunket gals and other critters o' thet kin'. No, ye hain't likely to hev thet kin' o' tom-foolishness to answer fur."

"I wonder my ears have n't burned off long ago, with all these old women's tongues a-wagging over my affairs." ""Tis sorter cu'rous,' Blanket admitted. "Got kinder casehardened, I guess; fur they hev jest ben a makin' things hum sence 'Mandy walked out o' the pahson's, head an' tail up, an' never looked at ye. I don't guess Padynarum's enj'yed anything quite so much fur a long time."

Ashgrave turned angrily away, stung with the sense of his utter failure in the affair. He had denied himself his own wife for the purpose of degrading her as a punishment for forcing marriage on him, and the only return was to have it supposed that she had refused to live with him, in spite of his legal claim upon her.

Blanket maintained his position of absolute quiescence and allowed Ashgrave to move a rod or more away. Then, without lifting his head or raising his voice, he said:

"Say!"

"What is it?" demanded Ashgrave sharply, looking back but not retracing his steps.

"They 've got a raal wil' man up Milbank way. A lot o' boys an' gals a'ter nuts ran onto him, an' they say he's ben seen round the barnyards in the mornin', an' when he's heerd of, eggs is scurce an' the cows is slack o' milk."

"Some fellow hiding out in the woods," said Ashgrave, more as an answer than because of any real interest he had in the story.

"Yas, it looks thet-a-way," Blanket admitted. "Cu'rous nobody 's ever found out what come of thet thar Barnaby, hain't it?"

Ashgrave turned hot and then cold at the question. He never quite knew whether Blanket was a fool or a knave, and it never seemed more a question than at this instant.

"What do you mean by that?" he demanded brusquely.

"Nothin'," replied Blanket, still passively inert, "only talkin' o' this tother critter kinder made me think o' him. He was a pretty likely sorter feller, 'cordin' to my way o' thinkin'."

"This wild man," demanded Ashgrave, with impatient brushing aside of Blanket's digression, "has he done any damage? Hurt anybody?"

"I hain't heerd o' none, 'ceptin' eggs an' milk. He seems friendly like, so they say, an' thet 's to his credit, fur mostly when folks is scart, they 're likely to find so'thin', so 's not to look so pesky silly, even ef they hev tu make it up."

"I hain't concerned with what folks do or don't do," interrupted Ashgrave. "What do you know?"

"I don't guess the U. S. mail could wait fur me to tell ye the hull on it," said Blanket cautiously. "I might kiver eny partic'lar subject you was interested in."

"Oh, damn all you know! I 'spose you could keep talking till judgment day, if you wanted to. What do you know about this wild man?”

"Jest what I tole ye," said Blanket, not a little chagrined by the poverty of resource he was compelled to admit. "I hain't hed no chance to get at him.'

"No. If you had, he 'd be wilder 'n he is now."

Ashgrave turned and started away again. Blanket

let him go a few steps and then brought him up again with that sharp,

"Say!"

"What cock and bull story is 't this time?" Ashgrave demanded sourly, yet moving back slowly, in the hope he might hear something more.

"Consid❜rin' your experunce es a merried man, would ye advise a feller like me to make up tu the Widder Marlow?"

"Go to hell!" exclaimed Ashgrave, turning away again.

Blanket looked after him with solemn eyes for a moment and then, starting his horse, said to himself: "Thet 's so'thin' like them tex's ye can read two ways tu once. I wonder whether he means fur me to get merried or keep out on it."