“Let me help you, sir,” she said, coming from behind the counter, upon seeing Elder Brown beginning to adjust his spectacles for a search.  He waved her back majestically.  “No, my dear, no; can’t allow it.  You mout sile them purty fingers.  No, ma’am.  No gen’l’man’ll ’low er lady to do such a thing.”  The elder was gently forcing the girl back to her place.  “Leave it to me.  I’ve picked up bigger things ’n them.  Picked myself up this mornin’.  Balaam—­you don’t know Balaam; he’s my donkey—­he tumbled me over his head in the sand this mornin’.”  And Elder Brown had to resume an upright position until his paroxysm of laughter had passed.  “You see this old hat?” extending it, half full of packages; “I fell clear inter it; jes’ as clean inter it as them things thar fell out’n it.”  He laughed again, and so did the girls.  “But, my dear, I whaled half the hide off’n him for it.”

“Oh, sir! how could you?  Indeed, sir.  I think you did wrong.  The poor brute did not know what he was doing, I dare say, and probably he has been a faithful friend.”  The girl cast her mischievous eyes towards her companions, who snickered again.  The old man was not conscious of the sarcasm.  He only saw reproach.  His face straightened, and he regarded the girl soberly.

“Mebbe you’re right, my dear; mebbe I oughtn’t.”

“I am sure of it,” said the girl.  “But now don’t you want to buy a bonnet or a cloak to carry home to your wife?”

“Well, you’re whistlin’ now, birdie; that’s my intention; set ’em all out.”  Again the elder’s face shone with delight.  “An’ I don’t want no one-hoss bonnet neither.”

“Of course not.  Now here is one; pink silk, with delicate pale blue feathers.  Just the thing for the season.  We have nothing more elegant in stock.”  Elder Brown held it out, upside down, at arm’s-length.

“Well, now, that’s suthin’ like.  Will it soot a sorter redheaded ’ooman?”

A perfectly sober man would have said the girl’s corsets must have undergone a terrible strain, but the elder did not notice her dumb convulsion.  She answered, heroically: 

“Perfectly, sir.  It is an exquisite match.”

“I think you’re whistlin’ again.  Nancy’s head’s red, red as a woodpeck’s.  Sorrel’s only half-way to the color of her top-knot, an’ it do seem like red oughter to soot red.  Nancy’s red an’ the hat’s red; like goes with like, an’ birds of a feather flock together.”  The old man laughed until his cheeks were wet.

The girl, beginning to feel a little uneasy, and seeing a customer entering, rapidly fixed up the bonnet, took fifteen dollars out of a twenty-dollar bill, and calmly asked the elder if he wanted anything else.  He thrust his change somewhere into his clothes, and beat a retreat.  It had occurred to him that he was nearly drunk.

Elder Brown’s step began to lose its buoyancy.  He found himself utterly unable to walk straight.  There was an uncertain straddle in his gait that carried him from one side of the walk to the other, and caused people whom he met to cheerfully yield him plenty of room.