Joel told his story, rattling it off so that Ben had to shake
his jacket many times. "Hold on there, Joe," he said, "you
haven't seen half that. You've been asleep."

"Come up and see," cried Joel, excitedly. "Oh, Ben, come up and
see."

"What's all this?" asked Farmer Blodgett, drawing near. So Ben
told it as well as he could for Joel, who wanted to go over
every word again, and at last they made him understand.

"Now that boy," said Mr. Blodgett, shifting his quid of tobacco
into the other cheek, "bein's he's a Pepper, knows what he's
a-talkin' of. I'm of th' opinion pretty strong that I'm a-goin' up
Bandy Leg."

"Oh, good! Mr. Blodgett," exclaimed Joel, hopping up and down in
his delight. "Do please hurry this minute and come on."

"Bein's I've lost more hens and chickens the last two weeks than
I ever have in my life before, and only yest'day wife had a hull
pan o' doughnuts took off from the back steps where she'd set
'em to cool, why I'm of the opinion pretty strong that Bandy Leg
Mountain will bear lookin' into. So I'll call Peter an' Jed, an' we'll
hoof it up there right away."

"Oh, Mr. Blodgett, do hurry," begged Joel, "and come." And he
began to dance off impatiently.