Jonadab Wixon payin' twenty-five hundred dollars for a plaything! Not promisin', but actually PAYIN' it! "'Has--has the widow gone with him ?' I asked, soon's I could get my breath.
"He laughed sort of queer.

'No,' he says, 'she's gone out of town for a few days.

Ha, ha! Well, between you and me, Wingate, I doubt if she comes back again.

She and I have made all we're likely to in this neighborhood, and she's too good a business woman to waste her time.
Good-by; glad to have met you.' "But I smelt rat strong and wouldn't let him go without seein' the critter.
"'Hold on!' I says.

'There's somethin' underneath all this.