There was lots o' side shows, mermaids 'n' six-legged calves 'n'
spotted girls, 'n' one thing 'n' 'nother, an' there was one o'
them whirligig machines with a mess o' rocking'-hosses goin'
round 'n' round, 'n' an organ in the middle playin' like sixty.
I wish we 'd 'a' kept clear o' the thing, but as bad luck would
hev it, we stopped to look, an' there on top o' two high-steppin'
white wooden hosses, set Mis' Fiddy an' that dod-gasted
light-complected baker-man! If ever she was suited to a dot,
it was jest then 'n' there. She could 'a' gone prancin'
round that there ring forever 'n' forever, with the whoopin'
'n' hollerin' 'n' whizzin' 'n' whirlin' soundin' in her ears,
'n' the music playin' like mad, 'n' she with nothin'
to do but stick on 'n' let some feller foot the bills.
Somebody must 'a' ben thinkin' o' Fiddy Maddox when the invented
them whirl-a-go-rounds. She was laughin' 'n' carryin'
on like the old Scratch; her apple-blossom hat dome off,
'n' the baker-man put it on, 'n' took consid'able time over it,
'n' pulled her ear 'n' pinched her cheek when he got through;
an' that was jest the blamed minute we ketched sight of 'em.
I pulled Dixie off, but I was too late. He give a groan I shall
remember to my dyin' day, 'n' then he plunged out o' the crowd
'n' through the gate like a streak o' lightnin'. We follered,
but land! we couldn't find him, an' true as I set here,
I never expected to see him alive agin. But I did;
I forgot all about one thing, you see, 'n' that was the baby.
If it wa'n't no attraction to its mother, I guess he cal'lated
it needed a father all the more. Anyhow, he turned up
in the field yesterday mornin', ready for work, but lookin'
as if he 'd hed his heart cut out 'n' a piece o' lead put
in the place of it."