There was a light already in the kitchen.
Mrs. Price and Eliza Jane Topliff appeared at once, eagerly hospitable.
"Anybody sick?" asked Mrs. Price, with instant sympathy. "Nothin'
happened, I hope?"
"Oh, no," said both the men.
"We came to talk about hiring your dog to-morrow night," explained
Isaac Brown, feeling for the moment amused at his eager errand. "We got
on track of a coon just now, up in the woods, and we thought we'd give
our boys a little treat. You shall have fifty cents, an' welcome, and a
good piece o' the coon."
"Yes, Square Brown; we can let you have the dog as well as not,"
interrupted Mrs. Price, delighted to grant a favor. "Poor departed
'Bijah, he set everything by him as a coon dog. He always said a dog's
capital was all in his reputation."
"You'll have to be dreadful careful an' not lose him," urged Mrs.
Topliff "Yes, sir; he's a proper coon dog as ever walked the earth, but
he's terrible weak-minded about followin' 'most anybody. 'Bijah used to
travel off twelve or fourteen miles after him to git him back, when he
wa'n't able. Somebody'd speak to him decent, or fling a whip-lash as
they drove by, an' off he'd canter on three legs right after the wagon.
But 'Bijah said he wouldn't trade him for no coon dog he ever was
acquainted with. Trouble is, coons is awful sca'ce."
"I guess he ain't out o' practice," said John York amiably; "I guess
he'll know when he strikes the coon. Come, Isaac, we must be gittin'
along tow'ds home.
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