"Yes, I remember," nodded the Squire; then he added with a complacent smile: "The mischievous little lad used my overshoe for a fish-pond once--I have that overshoe yet." "Have ye now?" asked Seth Wilber enviously. "I want ter know! Well, anyhow, my Tim, he went ter school with him, an' set in the same seat," continued Seth, turning toward the stranger. "Tim's got an old writin'-book with one leaf all sp'iled 'cause one of young Marvin's spiders got into the inkwell an' then did a cake-walk across the page. Tim, he got a lickin' fur it then, but he says he would n't give up that page now fur forty lickin's." The stranger shifted from one foot to the other. "Yes, yes," he began, "but--" "You'd oughter seen him when old Marvin used ter send him put to hoe pertaters," cut in Jared gleefully. "Gorry!--young as he was, he was all bugs then. He was smart enough to know that there was lots of curious critters under sticks an' stones that had laid still for a long time. I tell yer, there wa'n't much that got away from his bright eyes--except the pertaters!--he did n't bother them none." A prolonged chuckle and a loud laugh greeted this sally. In the pause that followed the stranger cleared his throat determinedly. "See here, gentlemen," he began pompously, with more than a shade of irritation in his voice. "_Will_ you allow me to speak? And _will_ you inform me what all this is about?" "About? Why, it's about Professor George Marvin, to be sure," rejoined Squire Fletcher. "Pray, what else should it be about?" "I guess you know what it's about all right, stranger," chuckled Seth Wilber, with a shrewd wink. "You can't fool us. Mebbe you're one o' them fellers what thinks we don't know enough ter 'preciate a big man when we've got him. No, sir-ree! We ain't that kind. Come, ye need n't play off no longer. We know why you're here, an' we're glad ter see ye, an' we're proud ter show ye the way ter our Professor's. Come on--'t ain't fur." The stranger drew back. His face grew red, then purple. "I should like to know," he sputtered thickly, "I should like to know if you really think that I--I have come 'way up here to see this old bug man. Why, man alive, I never even heard of him!" "What!" ejaculated three disbelieving voices, their owners too dumfounded to take exceptions to the sneer in tone and words. "Zounds, man!--what did you come for, then?" demanded the Squire. The stranger raised his chin.