"I'm goin' to doze a spell," drawled Jabe Slocum, pulling his
straw hat over his eyes. "I've got to renew my strength like
the eagle's, 'f I'm goin' to walk to the circus this afternoon.
Wake me up, boys, when you think I'd ought to sling that scythe
some more, for if I hev it on my mind I can't git a wink o' sleep."
This was apparently a witticism; at any rate, it elicited
roars of laughter.
"It's one of Jabe's useless days; he takes 'em from his
great-aunt Lyddy," said David Milliken.
"You jest dry up, Dave. Ef it took me as long to git
to workin' as it did you to git a wife, I bate this hay wouldn't
git mowed down to crack o' doom. Gorry! ain't this a tree!
I tell you, the sun 'n' the airth, the dew 'n' the showers,
'n' the Lord God o' creation jest took holt 'n' worked together
on this tree, 'n' no mistake!"
"You're right, Jabe." (This from Steve Webster, who was absently
cutting a _D_ in the bark. He was always cutting _D_'s these days.)
"This ellum can't be beat in the State o' Maine, nor no other state.
My brother that lives in California says that the big redwoods,
big as they air, don't throw no sech shade, nor ain't so han'some,
'specially in the fall o' the year, as our State o' Maine trees;
'assiduous trees,' he called 'em.
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