He shuddered, and began to talk aloud
to cheer himself. "Elivin muskrat skins, times fifteen cints
apiece, one dollar sixty-five. That will buy more than I can hold.
Hagginy! Won't I be takin' one long fine gurgle of the pure stuff!
And there's the boys! I might do the grand for once. One on me for
the house! And I might pay something on my back score, but first
I'll drink till I swell like a poisoned pup. And I ought to get
Mary that milk pail she's been kickin' for this last month. Women
and cows are always kickin'! If the blarsted cow hadn't kicked a
hole in the pail, there'd be no need of Mary kicking for a new one.
But dough is dubious soldering. Mary says it's bad enough on the
dish pan, but it positively ain't hilthy about the milk pail, and
she is right. We ought to have a new pail. I guess I'll get it
first, and fill up on what's left. One for a quarter will do. And
I've several traps yet, I may get a few more rats."
The virtuous resolve to buy a milk pail before he quenched the
thirst which burned him, so elated Jimmy with good opinion of
himself that he began whistling gayly as he strode toward his next
trap. And by that token, Dannie Macnoun, resetting an empty trap a
quarter of a mile below, knew that Jimmy was coming, and that as
usual luck was with him. Catching his blood and water dripping bag,
Dannie dodged a rotten branch that came crashing down under the
weight of its icy load, and stepping out on the river, he pulled on
his patched wool-lined mittens as he waited for Jimmy.
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