"Wash, where did the mule hit you ?" "Ah reckons all ovah, 'cept on de bean.

Why dat fool mule kick me?
Hain't nevah done nothin' laik that befo'.

Ah ask yuh why he do dat ?" insisted Washington.
They glanced at Emma, whose face reddened.
"I threw a stone at you and hit the mule, if you must know," she said.
"The mule passed it on, hitting you with his foot.

That mule must have played tag when he was a child.

I'm sorry, Wash--but if you had been attending to your business you would not have been hit." Washington's first thought upon recovering from his daze had been for the harmonica, and his first act, after getting to his feet, was to go in search of it.