"Ah, ha!" he exclaimed, "you've been a-shav-ing yerself!"
He dropped his walking-stick and hopped over it two or three times, and cackled, "Ha, ha! ho, ho! You're going to have a mustache, and then you're going to see a gal by the name o' Mary."
It seemed as if ruin stared me in the face.
"Lend me two dollars," Bony Squares demanded. "Come, be quick about, it or I'll tell on ye--hope t' die if I don't."
It was to me a large sum, for my income was only four dollars and twenty-five cents a month. But my fear of ridicule had the persuasiveness of a thumb-screw. I had two dollars and nineteen cents that I had been saving for the fair at Heartsdale. With great solemnity I took the two-dollar bill out of my pocket and put it in the hand of my oppressor.
"I'm going for a drive to-night," he said, as he took the money. "It's a matter of business that 'll pay me pretty well, and I may need some help. Come along, and I'll pay you back the money I've borrowed and a dollar besides."
"Oh, down the country about fifteen miles. I'm going to get a Bungwood cow for a friend o' mine."
"An imported breed," said he, "and the best in the world. They're frisky and a little dangerous."
That seemed to me rather curious, but, then, I did not know much about cows. It was a greater compliment than I had ever received--the invitation of this imperial and heroic figure; but I concealed my joy with a look of calmness.
The jaunty fellow crossed the floor, rattling his change and singing, "Oh, we won't go home till morning!" He turned quickly and said, with a sober face: "I'll get ye here in good season. Tell 'em you're going to stay with a friend, an' will be back in the morning."
I lied about it, for I knew that Mr. Weatherby had no high opinion of Bony Squares, and got permission to go.
At seven o'clock that evening I set out for the corner below Mill Pond, where Bony, with a horse and a buckboard, was to wait for me. There he was, and away we went; and the horse's hoofs beat time for a lively ditty sung by my new friend. The chill night fell, and a sense of sadness and regret was in me. To what place he drove, or how long it took him to get there, I know not even now. After a long time I fell asleep. A rude shake and the light of a lantern awoke me. I got out of the buggy in a shed back of a little church.