"Only to Topham. Little more'n twelve mile. I'll send ye home by somebody. Pay ye well, too. Will you go?"
Jed hesitated a moment, but it was only because he seemed to be listening to a great rattle of fire-crackers to come--a cow-load of them.
"We'll see her about it right away. You're just the boy I want. Give you four shillings."
A York shilling was twelve and a half cents, and four of them made half a dollar. Oh, what fire-works!
Mrs. Pullman met them at the door, and the first word she said was, "Why, is that you, Deacon Giddings?"
Then Jed knew it was all right, and while his mother talked with Deacon Giddings, he went and combed his hair, and put on his Sunday hat and a pair of shoes and stockings.
"Jed's a tough little fellow," said his mother, "and he's used to driving cows."
She might have said more than that for him. Even Deacon Giddings had picked him out as the "toughest-lookin' little chap he'd seen in a long time." The deacon was in a hurry, though, and almost before Jed began to realize it, he was dancing around behind a very reluctant and rebellious cow, right up the main street, with his new friend watching him from the seat of the heavily loaded wagon.
"Ain't I glad I brought Barlow along!" said Jed to himself, again and again. "He's a small dog, but he just knows how to bark the best kind."
Barlow was indeed a small dog, very fat and very yellow, and with less than two inches of stubby tail, but he was keeping up a very steady racket at the heels of the cow. He could hardly have done better if he had been a perpetual pack of fire-crackers, going off one at a time.
Once they were out of the village and into the country road, the work became easier, and Barlow could now and then sit down and pant awhile before opening a fresh bark.
"You're the boy for me," said the Deacon, from the wagon. "But ain't you afraid that dog o' yourn'll bark himself to death?"
"No, sir, he's used to it. Our brindled heifer always keeps him barking."
"You don't say! Well, I'm glad I know your folks. What do you mean to do with your money?"
"That's it. I declare! Well, now, I might have thought of that. Gingerbread, nuts, candy--"
"You don't say! Look out for that cow; she's heading down the road again. Hear that dog bark! I declare!"