"Christmas Day, you know, Calvin!" he said. "We allers made some little change in our dress, sir, for Christmas dinner. I thought 'twould please Ma, and Cousin, and--and the other one, too!" he added, with a furtive glance toward the door. "Well, I am blowed!" said Calvin Parks plaintively. "I certinly am this time. You boys is too much for me." Mr. Sim coughed modestly, and cast another coy glance at the red waistcoat. "How is poor Sam'l this mornin', Calvin?" he asked mournfully. "Do you find him changed much of any?" "I do not!" said Calvin. "He's just about as handsome, and just about as takin' as he was last time, fur as I see." "Ah!" sighed Mr. Sim. "You don't see below the surface, Cal." "Nor don't wish to!" retorted Calvin. "That's quite sufficient for me." "I've got the feelin' in my bones," Mr. Sim went on, "that somethin' is goin' to happen to Sam'l, Calvin. He's that reckless, sir, I look 'most any day to see him brought home a mangled remain. Call it a warnin', or what you will, I believe it's comin'. I hear him cuttin' round them corners, and reshin' in and out the yard with them wild hosses,--" "Wild hosses!" repeated Calvin Parks. "Sim Sill, you feel in your pants pocket, won't you, and see if you can't scare up some wits, just a mite. Old John is thirty if he's a day, and the old hoss of all--well, nobody knows how old he is, beyond that he'll never see forty again. The mare has been here ever since I can remember, or pretty nigh, and your Ma bought the young colt before ever I went to sea. Now talk about wild hosses!" "It ain't their age, Cal, it's their natur'!" responded Mr. Sim with dignity. "That mare, sir, has never ben stiddy, nor yet will she ever so be, in my opinion." "Well!" said Calvin Parks. "I'll tell him next time he goes to market, tie her to the well-sweep and walk; you don't cal'late his legs would up and run away with him, do ye? Now I'm goin' to help Miss Hands dish up dinner." "Hold on, Calvin! hold on jest a minute!" cried Mr. Sim anxiously. "I've got a little present I'd like for you to give Sam'l from me, sir. It's--" he got up, shuffled across the room, and opened a cupboard door. "It's something he's allers coveted." Fumbling in a box, he took out an ancient seal of red carnelian, and rubbed it lovingly on his coat-sleeve. "Belonged to Uncle Sim Penny," he said. "Ma give it to me, on accounts of me bein' his name-son; I don't know as ever I've used it, or likely to, and Sam'l has always coveted it. You give that to Sam'l, Calvin, will you?" "Oh molasses!" said Calvin impatiently. "Give it to him yourself, you ridic'lous old object!" "No! no, Calvin! no, no, sir!" cried Mr. Sim piteously. "We don't speak, you know; we--we've lost the habit of it, and we're too old to ketch holt of it again. You give it to him, Cal, like a good feller! And--and there's another thing, Calvin. Did you have any dealin's with Cousin about what we was speakin' of some time along back, in regards to Sam'l?"