"Give me my coffee turrible quick," said Mr. Wiley; "I must be down to the
bridge 'fore they start dog-warpin' the side jam."
"I notice you're always due at the bridge on churnin' days," remarked his
spouse, testily.
"'T ain't me as app'ints drivin' dates at Edgewood," replied the old man. "The
boys'll hev a turrible job this year. The logs air ricked up jest like Rose's
jack-straws; I never see 'em so turrible ricked up in all my exper'ence; an'
Lije Dennett don' know no more 'bout pickin' a jam than Cooper's cow. Turrible
sot in his ways, too; can't take a mite of advice. I was tellin' him how to go
to work on that bung that's formed between the gre't gray rock an' the shore,
--the awfullest place to bung that there is between this an' Biddeford,- and
says he: 'Look here, I've be'n boss on this river for twelve year, an' I'll be
doggoned if I'm goin' to be taught my business by any man!' 'This ain't no
river,' says I, 'as you'd know,' says I, 'if you'd ever lived on the
Kennebec.' 'Pity you hed n't stayed on it,' says he. 'I wish to the land I
hed,' says I. An' then I come away, for my tongue's so turrible spry an'
sarcustic that I knew if I stopped any longer I should stir up strife.
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