Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/188

Rh a team of four little milk-white oxen, no bigger than tall cats, which is to be hitched to a little hay-waggon, which I am to ride in, with a little pitch-fork an' real farmer's clothes—only small. This will come to-morrow, when I will pay for it an' ride away to exhibit. It may be here now, an' I will go an' see. Good-bye.'

"'Good-bye, likewise,' says the lady. 'I hope you'll have all you're thinkin' you're havin' an' more too, but less if you'd like it. Farewell.' An' away they goes.

"Well, you may be sure, I stood there amazed enough, an' mad too when I heard her talk about my bein' all I was a-thinkin' I was. I was sure my husband—scarce two weeks old, a husband—had told all. It was too bad. I wished I had jus' said I was the Earl-ess of Random an' brassed it out.

"I rushed back an' foun' him smokin' a pipe on a back porch. I charged him with his perfidy, but he vowed so earnest that he had not told these people of our fancies, or ever had spoke to 'em, that I had to believe him.

"'I expec',' says he, 'that they're jus' makin'-believe—as we are. There aint no patent on make-believes.'

"This didn't satisfy me, an' as he seemed to be so careless about it, I walked away, an' left him to his pipe. I determined to go take a walk along some of the country roads, an' think this thing over for myself. I went aroun' to the front gate, where the woman of the house was a-standin' talkin' to somebody, an' I jus' bowed to her; for I didn't feel like sayin' anything, an walked past her.

"'Hello!' said she, jumpin' in front of me, an' shuttin' the gate. 'You can't go out here. If you