No response following, the Judge shamelessly abandoned his companion.
"You wouldn't stand snoopin' round instead of lettin' the Old Man get used to the idea alone?
No; I could see all along that he was takin' it in, takin' it in, kindly but slowly, and I reckoned the best thing for us to do was to git up and git until he'd got round it." The Judge's voice was slightly raised for the benefit of the two before him.
"Didn't he say," remarked the Right Bower, stopping suddenly and facing the others, "didn't he say that that new trader was goin' to let him have some provisions anyway ?" Union Mills turned appealingly to the Judge; that gentleman was forced to reply, "Yes; I remember distinctly he said it.

It was one of the things I was particular about on his account," responded the Judge, with the air of having arranged it all himself with the new trader.

"I remember I was easier in my mind about it." "But didn't he say," queried the Left Bower, also stopping short, "suthin' about it's being contingent on our doing some work on the race ?" The Judge turned for support to Union Mills, who, however, under the hollow pretense of preparing for a long conference, had luxuriously seated himself on a stump.

The Judge sat down also, and replied, hesitatingly, "Well, yes! Us or him." "Us or him," repeated the Right Bower, with gloomy irony.

"And you ain't quite clear in your mind, are you, if YOU haven't done the work already?
You're just killing yourself with this spontaneous, promiscuous, and premature overwork; that's what's the matter with you." "I reckon I heard somebody say suthin' about it's being a Chinaman's three-day job," interpolated the Left Bower, with equal irony, "but I ain't quite clear in my mind about that." "It'll be a sorter distraction for the Old Man," said Union Mills, feebly--"kinder take his mind off his loneliness." Nobody taking the least notice of the remark, union Mills stretched out his legs more comfortably and took out his pipe.