34 JOCK'S LAKK. 



man that don't work any and don't try to make livin' a 

 little easier for somebody else, runs a mighty big cliance of 

 not makin' much of a neighbor of liimself anywhere." 



"But 1 don't see, Mr. Wilkinson," interrupted the Pro- 

 fessor, who sccincd amusedly interested in the disquisition 

 of tin- backwoodsman, "I don't quite set- that v<>u have 

 fairly established your original proposition that you have 

 neighbors, when the nearest person i> -~c\c\\ inilo awavand 

 no neighbor at all in any proper sense of the term." 



"Oh, very well," replied he, doubtless stumbled by the 



a<*umed gravity of the Professor. " You mean by neigh- 

 lior the iii;in in the next \ ard. I Mipp<><e, that knows what 

 you had for breakfast in the murnin', and who vou brought 

 home to dinner with you, and hears your wife when -he 

 spanks the baby, and 



"Never mind him," said Benson, "he's a pedagogue, 

 ami takes everything like the multiplication table. 11< 

 don't realize how the imagination of a genuine backwoods- 

 man sweeps around for twenty milev and takes in all the 

 people of a circuit as his neighbors. " 



"But the boats, Wilkinson, where are they hid? I'm as 

 empty as a last year's chipping-bird's nest, and 1 must have 

 some supper!" and Thompson emphasized his remark by 

 patting his stomach, in a patronizing way. with his open 

 palms. 



" You can't find 'em the} T 're over bey end the sprinir, up 

 the hill a little ways, behind a log and covered up with 

 leaves. I'll go and show you, and help you get 'em down 



