"I believe if the meetin'-house roof was to blow off you'd lay it onto me somehow.

I hain't ben runnin' the Eagle tavern fer quite a consid'able while.

You got the wrong pig by the ear as usual.

Jest you pitch into him," pointing with his fork to John.

"It's his funeral, if anybody's." "Wa'al," said Aunt Polly, addressing John in a tone of injury, "I do think you might have let somebody know; I think you'd ortter 've known--" "Yes, Mrs.Bixbee," he interrupted, "I did know how kind you are and would have been, and if matters had gone on so much longer I should have appealed to you, I should have indeed; but really," he added, smiling at her, "a dinner like this is worth fasting a week for." "Wa'al," she said, mollified again, "you won't git no more herrin' 'nless you ask fer 'em." "That is just what your brother said this morning," replied John, looking at David with a laugh..