Where was it?
We-ll, 'twas in my pants pocket here, just where I put it last time I used it.

Naturally enough I shouldn't have thought of lookin' there and I don't know's I'd have found it yet, but I happened to shove my hands in my pockets to help me think, and there 'twas." This explanation should have been satisfying, doubtless, but Barbara did not seem to find it wholly so.
"Please may I ask one more question, Mamma ?" she pleaded.

"Just only one ?" She asked it before her mother could reply.
"How does putting your hands in your pockets help you think, Mr.
Winslow ?" she asked.

"I don't see how it would help a bit ?" Jed's eye twinkled, but his reply was solemnly given.
"Why, you see," he drawled, "I'm built a good deal like the old steam launch Tobias Wixon used to own.

Every time Tobias blew the whistle it used up all the steam and the engine stopped.