"I admit that it was a very striking scene. It was very
good," I added, religiously, referring to the corn. Mr. Rollin ought to
know, I thought, that I had come to Wallencamp on a mission, and that if
he wished to scoff at the ways of its defenceless inhabitants, he
shouldn't look to find a confidante in me.
"The hulled corn? Oh! yes, indeed!" he answered with a sprightly air.
"We have it served in the same way at Emily's, and we think it's
just--a--rich, you know. But I wanted to tell you. If you could have
known how confoundedly struck up I was when I went into the Ark that
night, you wouldn't think it so strange my standing staring there like a
fool. You see we fellows, picking up everything of interest down here to
amuse ourselves with, heard that there was a new school-teacher coming,
so we gave our imaginations free rein. We were laughing it over among
ourselves, and Smith said, 'she'd probably have hair like Rollin's,' and
Jake said 'she'd wear spectacles, and have a nose like the Clipper in
the _Three Fates_', and all that sort of thing. So I went up that night
to see, just for the deuce of it, and not to get the oars at all, and I
was deucedly well paid for it, too.
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