194 PETER GOFF, TTIK MAX WITH HIS MOUTH OPEN. 



So the etory goes, and it stands to reason. On he gallopped up hill, 

 and down hill, hither and thither, over field and over pasture, through 

 the bogs, and the swamps, and the woods, and among all sorts of scare- 

 crow places, for Peter could not move an arm to turn him to the 

 right or to the left. In short, he made a regular circumbendibus all 

 round Robin Hood's barn/' 



" Pray, Colonel, I beg pardon for interrupting you, but how are 

 all these particulars known ?" 



The Colonel paused at this question and looked a little puzzled. 

 He scratched his head and gave two or three hems. 



" I can't exactly say, but they rest on good authority : there's Giles 

 Godkin's will take his oath on the bible book, that he spied him about 

 four o'clock the Sunday morning as he got up to fodder his cattle; Pe- 

 ter was going at a full canter down Break-neck hill into Dead-man's 

 hollow. Giles hallowed after him, but he kept cantering on till he 

 was out of sight in the darkness. Giles did not know what to make 

 of it, thinking it might be the witch of Endor on a broomstick, or 

 the ghost of old Sagamore Saul, the Indian marauder, astride of a black 

 bear. However, some days afterward the whole story came out, and 

 Giles found that he had seen Peter Goff." 



" And what became of Peter the next morning ?" 



" You shall hear. All night long, as I said, he was tramping about, 

 snuffing the gentle gale that blew just then from the north-west about 

 sixteen degrees below nothing. Many a man remembers that cold 

 snap, the deacon in particular, for he kept a grocery-store there, and his 

 whole stock of rum and brandy froze as hard as rock Dunder. But 

 that was easily accounted for. 



" Well, it blew as I tell you, pretty considerably keen ; and Peter 

 was cool enough for comfort. He was right glad when he saw the day 

 break, so that he could find the road again ; and just after sun-rise he 

 got into Firetown. 



" Now Peter's horse stopped at the tavern, for that is a horse's 

 trick, whether his rider wants to stop or not ; but Peter of course 

 could not get off; by-and-by somebody came out now it happened 

 that this was old Crusty, that used to keep the Punch Bowl Tim, 

 as the devil would have it for certainly nobody but the devil ever 

 could contrive to twist up such a snarl of accidents Tim, I say, had 

 just caught a terrible cold, which made him so hoarse that he could 

 not utter a voice louder than a whisper, and, moreover, he was so 

 stiff in the neck with the rheumatism, that he could not turn his head 

 the hundredth part of an inch. Well, Tim came to the door, and 

 you may think he was pretty considerably surprised at the sight of 

 Peter ; for Peter, you may depend, made a horrible hobgoblin ap- 

 pearance by broad daylight. However, Tim was not a man to be 

 frightened, for he had been in the old French wars, and, besides that, 

 he was inspector-general of our brigade of militia, so that, you know, 

 he was used to all sorts of scarecrow sights. Tim stared, without 

 saying a word for why, he was not able to speak. Peter neither 

 spoke nor stirred, for the same reason. Tim looked at Peter, and Peter 

 looked at Tim ! 



" There was little tale-telling lost between them, I promise you, for 



