THE "PAINTER" IN THE PIG PEN. 237 



him. That was kind of onfair to the varmint, I thought. Sez I, 

 ' I '11 show you a purtier trick than that ; I '11 jist open the door, 

 and then, Marthy, if you hold the light steady, I '11 take him with 

 a poke in the ribs that will stop his stealin' my pigs. There is no 

 miss fire to my gun, and that won't be imposin' on a varmint that 's 

 down.' I put my hand to the peg that held the chain, when the 

 Doctor, taking the ends of the logs that stuck out at the corner of 

 the cabin for a stairs, jist put himself on the top of the pen in a 

 shake of a deer's tail. I smiled softly to myself, but I didn't say 

 nothin', for, thinks I to myself, if the varmint does come out here, 

 and I do miss him, or only wound him, the dogs will be on him 

 like a shot and then he'll go to tree right on top of the cabin, 

 that 's sure. 



" So I tugged at the peg, and every time the chain rattled, the 

 Doctor edged back on the top of the cabin, gettin' up to the ridge, 

 I s'pose, for a sure seat, when all of a sudden he disappeared. 

 Heavens and yearth! he had come backwards onto the hole the 

 painter had dug in the roof, and had tumbled in. 



" Yer should have heerd that man scream ! The painter wasn't 

 nothin' to it. Painter might have been some louder, but then it 

 wasn't so skeery. It fairly made me shaky to hear him. As he 

 come down to the ground inside, there was such a hustling around 

 in that little building ! pigs and painter and man, all seemed to be 

 stirrin' about pretty lively, and to all the other noises the old 

 woman set up a screechin' that made me more shaky than any- 

 thing else. 



" ' Quick ! ' she hollered, ' pull open the door — quick ! 

 Eliakim ! oh dear ! ' 



" I pulled as hard as I could, but the cussed peg had swelled 

 with the rain, and yer couldn't budge it, and the chain was the 

 ox-chain, as went all across the door. 



" ' Tear it down, you old pirate ! ' says the old woman to me, 

 and she took hold of it with both hands, but she might as well 

 have tried to pull down the cabin. And all the time, between the 

 howlin's of the dogs and the squealin's of the pigs I could hear 

 the Doctor a-prayin' away one minnit as loud as he could bawl, 

 and at another minnit callin' to me to come and help him. 



