"'Did you have a barrel on that wagon a minute ago?' one of the two men
asked.
"'What'n the hell are you talkin' about?' asked Toot. 'I haven't
seed--seen no barrel.'" Hettie was trying to speak correctly, but the
spirit of the narrative ran away with her meagre ideas of grammar.
"'Oh,' said I, 'you've got the wrong sow by the ear; a wagon went
whizzin' by here a minute ago like it was shot out of a gun.'
"'Which way?' the officer asked, rippin' out an oath that 'u'd a-took
the prize at a cussin'-bee.
"I pointed down the road and said: 'I hear it a-clatterin' now,' and
off they galloped. Well, Toot soon loaded the whiskey again and drove
off up the mountain, but he's laughed about that a hundred times and
told the moonshiners about it. Whenever I meet one in the road--I know
the last one of 'em--they ask me if I've seen a whiskey wagon anywheres
about. Harriet," she added, more soberly, "you've give me a sight of
comfort. Now tell me about you-know-who. Toot told me the last time
he was at our house that he knowed you were gone on that new feller.
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