Once we had come to a deadlock as to the kind of vehicle from which it was proper to accept such hospitality.

Perhaps it was a Puritan scrupulousness in my blood that had made me take the stand that four-wheeled vehicles, such as wagons, hay-carts and the like, being slow-moving, were permissible, but that buggies, or any form of rapid two-wheeled vehicle, were not.

To this Colin had retorted that, on that basis, a tally-ho would be all right, or even an automobile.

So the argument had wrestled from side to side, and finally we had compromised.
We agreed that an occasional buggy would be within the vagabond law and that any vehicle, other, of course, than an automobile, which was not plying for hire--such as a trolley or a local train--might on occasion be gratefully climbed into.
Thus it was that we hesitated a moment at the offer of our friend, a hesitancy we amused him by explaining as, presently, conscience-clear, we rattled with him through the hills.

He was an interesting talker, a human-hearted, keen-minded man, and he had many more topics as well as potatoes.