thet's jest whar ye slip up; and thet's jest whar Billy slipped up!" he
added slowly. "Mebbe ye've noticed, too, thet the parson's built kinder
solid about the head and shoulders. It mought hev be'n thet, or thet
Billy didn't get a fair start, but thet goat went down on his fore legs
like a shot, and the parson gave one heave, and jest scooted him off the
platform! Then the parson reckoned thet this yer 'tablow' had better
be left out, as thar didn't seem to be any other man who could play
Jephthah, and it wasn't dignified for HIM to take the part. But the
parson allowed thet it might be a great moral lesson to Billy!"
And it WAS, for from that moment Billy never attempted to butt again.
He performed with great docility later on in the Pet's engagement at
Skinnerstown; he played a distinguished role throughout the provinces;
he had had the advantages of Art from "the Pet," and of Simplicity from
Polly, but only Rocky Canyon knew that his real education had come with
his first rehearsal with the Reverend Mr. Withholder.
DICK SPINDLER'S FAMILY CHRISTMAS
There was surprise and sometimes disappointment in Rough and Ready, when
it was known that Dick Spindler intended to give a "family" Christmas
party at his own house. That he should take an early opportunity to
celebrate his good fortune and show hospitality was only expected from
the man who had just made a handsome "strike" on his claim; but that it
should assume so conservative, old-fashioned, and respectable a form was
quite unlooked-for by Rough and Ready, and was thought by some a trifle
pretentious. There were not half-a-dozen families in Rough and Ready;
nobody ever knew before that Spindler had any relations, and this
"ringing in" of strangers to the settlement seemed to indicate at least
a lack of public spirit. "He might," urged one of his critics, "hev
given the boys,--that had worked alongside o' him in the ditches by day,
and slung lies with him around the camp-fire by night,--he might hev
given them a square 'blow out,' and kep' the leavin's for his old
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