"I've been thinkin', that's all." "Want to know!" observed the Captain.

"Well, what made you do anything as risky as that ?" Mary-'Gusta's forehead puckered.
"I was playin' with Jimmie Bacheldor yesterday," she said, "and he made me think." Abner Bacheldor was the nearest neighbor.

His ramshackle dwelling was an eighth of a mile from the Gould-Hamilton place.

Abner had the reputation of being the meanest man in town; also he had a large family, of which Jimmie, eight years old, was the youngest.
"Humph!" sniffed Captain Shad.

"So Jimmie Bacheldor made you think, eh?
I never should have expected it from one of that tribe.