If he didn't have no better sense than to get sick the day you come home I'd--I'd--I don't know's I wouldn't drown him.

HE ain't sick--unless," he added, as an afterthought, "he's got Saint Vitus dance from hoppin' up and down to look out of the window, watchin' for us." "But if he isn't sick, why isn't he at the store?
Who is there ?" The Captain chuckled.
"Not a solitary soul," he declared.

"That store's shut up tight and it's goin' to stay that way this whole blessed evenin'.

Zoeth and me we talked it over.

I didn't know but we'd better get Abel Snow's boy or that pesky Annabel or somebody to stay while we was havin' supper.