top side o' the bar'l. Then they begun to shuv." "Nonsense!" "I tell you; them rats they jist put their backs ag'in the bar'l and shuved for all they were worth; but 'twarn't no go. They was too light. D'ye think they guv up the job--not they! The ole chap led 'em roun' the bottom side, and they set to scraping more yearth away till the bar'l were almost undermined. Then roun' they came ag'in, all squeaking, and one of the snakes popped his head out ter see what the noise were about. Nex' minute he'd a' bin among 'em, but the 'ole parcel o' rats, maybe one hundred, guv another mighty shuv, and 'fore I could start up to prevent it that bar'l gave a list over, and then started. Once it started it jes' flew down the slope, and went to pieces at the bottom with a smash. The snake that were hangin' out were flattened dead, and the way them rats fell on his body were a caution. They were tearin' it to pieces when, bilin' with rage an' hissin' most furious, up came the other riptile. The rats then scooted--that's so!" CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE. ABE PIKE SCOUTING. "Yes!" said Abe, one afternoon, after he had been helping threshin' wheat; "these newfangled machines bin smashing up all the good old customs that were the salt of country life. This yer thresher of yours may get through the sheaves with a lot of dust an' rattle an' smoke, but give me the old floor, an' the oxen tramping out the ear, an' the neighbours coming to the supper. Oh, yes! the old customs they brought the people together and made 'em soshiable and talk. Lor' bless you, there ain't no talking nowadays--only grunting." "Is that so?" said I, as I brushed the dust from my eyes. "It are. No one talks now, 'cos of these yer machines, which does everything. Why, blow me! you can shoot a man with these new guns without ever seeing him." "I don't know that it is any more satisfaction for the man shot to die with the knowledge that he knows who shot him." "Well, I do know. Take these yer talking machines I year on. What's the good squeaking through a machine to a man, or maybe a girl, in the nex' street when you can't see the eyes of her, or the shape of her lips, or the expression, without which talking's no account. Look here, sonny, you listen to what I tell you; these yer machines goin' to turn out people same as pins, all o' one pattern." "You're a great talker yourself, Abe?"