Part 5 (2/2)
”Will you take a gold piece?”
”It's not for sale, I tell you. Hasn't it kept me and mine for years?”
and with that Donald hit the hide another whack and out jumped a second penny.
Well, the long and the short of it was that Donald let the hide go, and, that very evening, who but he should walk up to Hudden's door?
”Good-evening, Hudden. Will you lend me your best pair of scales?”
Hudden stared and Hudden scratched his head, but he lent the scales.
When Donald was safe at home, he pulled out his pocketful of bright gold and began to weigh each piece in the scales. But Hudden had put a lump of b.u.t.ter at the bottom, and so the last piece of gold stuck fast to the scales when he took them back to Hudden.
If Hudden had stared before, he stared ten times more now, and no sooner was Donald's back turned, than he was off as hard as he could pelt to Dudden's.
”Good-evening, Dudden. That vagabond, bad luck to him----”
”You mean Donald O'Neary?”
”And who else should I mean? He's back here weighing out sackfuls of gold.”
”How do you know that?”
”Here are my scales that he borrowed, and here's a gold piece still sticking to them.”
[Ill.u.s.tration:]
Off they went together, and they came to Donald's door. Donald had finished making the last pile of ten gold pieces. And he couldn't finish because a piece had stuck to the scales.
In they walked without an ”If you please” or ”By your leave.”
”Well, _I_ never!” that was all _they_ could say.
”Good-evening, Hudden; good-evening Dudden. Ah! you thought you had played me a fine trick, but you never did me a better turn in all your lives When I found poor Daisy dead, I thought to myself, 'Well, her hide may fetch something'; and it did. Hides are worth their weight in gold in the market just now.”
Hudden nudged Dudden, and Dudden winked at Hudden.
”Good-evening, Donald O'Neary.”
”Good-evening, kind friends.”
The next day there wasn't a cow or a calf that belonged to Hudden or Dudden but her hide was going to the fair in Hudden's biggest cart drawn by Dudden's strongest pair of horses.
When they came to the fair, each one took a hide over his arm, and there they were walking through the fair, bawling out at the top of their voices: ”Hides to sell! hides to sell!”
Out came the tanner:
”How much for your hides, my good men?”
<script>