“Lawful heart!” exclaimed Hannah. Josh now felt a little more at his ease, finding the musquash helped him on so bravely. He hitched his chair about seven feet at a single jerk, nearer to Hannah, and exclaimed: “Tell ye what, Hannah, I’m all creation for catching musquashes.” “Well, I want to know!” replied Hannah. Josh twisted his eyes into a squint, and gave her a look of melting tenderness. Hannah perceived it, and did not know whether to laugh or be scared; so, to compromise the matter, she pretended to be taken with a fit of coughing. Josh felt his heart begin to beat, and was fully convinced he was courting, or something very like it; but what to do next was the question. “Shall I kiss her?” thought he. “No, no, it’s a _leetle_ too early for that; but I’ll tell her I love her.” At this thought his heart went bump! bump! bump! harder than ever. “Hannah!” he exclaimed, in a squeaking voice, and stopped short. “Hey, Josh!” said Hannah. “Hannah, I—I—” he rolled up the whites of his eyes, in a most supplicating leer, but the word stuck in his throat. Hannah looked directly in his face; he was in a dreadful puzzle what to say, for he was obliged to say something. His eye fell by accident on a gridiron hanging in the chimney corner: “What a terrible crack your gridiron’s got in it!” exclaimed he. “Poh!” said Hannah. Here the conversation came again to a dead stop, for Josh had so exhausted himself in this effort to break the ice, that he was not master of his faculties for several minutes; and when he came fairly to his senses, he found himself counting the tickings of an old wooden clock that stood in the corner. He counted and counted till he had numbered three hundred and ninety-seven ticks, when he luckily heard a cow lowing out of doors. “Ugh!” said he, “whose cow’s that?” “Drummer Tucker’s,” replied Hannah. “Drummer Tucker’s! Well, I want to know!” This reply suggested an idea. “Hannah,” asked he, “did you ever see a dromedary?” “No; did you, Josh?” “No,” returned Josh, “I never see nothin’ in my life but a green monkey; and then I was a’most skeered to death!” “Lawful heart! Mercy’s sake!” exclaimed Hannah, and here the conversation came to a pause again. The longer they sat, the more awkwardly Josh found himself situated; he sat bolt upright in his chair, with his knees close together and his head stooping forward in such a manner that his long queue stuck out horizontally behind, and his eyes stuck out horizontally before, like those of a lobster. For several minutes he sat contemplating the handle of the warming-pan that hung by the side of the fireplace; and then gradually elevating his line of vision, came in sight of a huge crook-necked squash lying on the mantel-piece. Then he looked at Hannah, and then at the dish-cloth in the mouth of the oven, and from the dish-cloth made a transition back to the warming-pan.