A GREAT DAY FOR TALKING. 89 



frame and equally strong lungs. He was a talker, 

 and the tones were of such a pitch and volume that 

 the tops of the highest hills echoed them back. Then 

 there was Levette, called for short "Cockeye." 

 Levette wanted to talk and was continually trying 

 to get in a word, but he was entirely too slow for the 

 crowd he was now with. The inevitable "I was 

 just goin' to say" never got beyond his tongue's end 

 until some readier talker broke in, and it was never 

 known what he was going to say. Eames, who had 

 never been defeated in a talking-match, was there, 

 and then there was Harvey, who had had forty-nine 

 years' experience at it. All had something to say, 

 and none cared what the others had done; so the 

 result was that all talked at once. Dyche was some- 

 what of a talker himself, and when he got into the 

 crowd he was anxious to tell of his experience at 

 Beaty's cabin. The result of all this was that when 

 Mrs. Harvey announced that the haunch of venison 

 was sufficiently baked and that dinner was ready, 

 there were five men all talking at the top of their 

 voices, each sandwiching in his story wherever he 

 got an opportunity. While Mrs. Harvey and Mrs. 

 Dyche stood in the door of the kitchen laughing at 

 the exertions of the talkers, in walked Beaty. 



Now Beaty carried off the palm as a talker in that 

 region, and when he began all others were compelled 

 from the sheer force of necessity to stop. Beaty had 

 a story to tell and he told it. His voice soon made 

 itself felt in the general pandemonium, and the 

 others gradually quieted down until he had the floor 

 to himself. But he talked under difficulties. He 



