Whether or not the episode of the dog had diverted Mr. Harum’s mind from his previous topic, he did not resume it until John ventured to remind him of it, with “You were saying something about the surprise for your wife.”

“That’s so,” said David.  “Yes, wa’al, when I went home that night I stopped into a mil’nery store, an’ after I’d stood ’round a minute, a girl come up an’ ast me if she c’d show me anythin’.

“‘I want to buy a bunnit,’ I says, an’ she kind o’ laughed.  ‘No,’ I says, ‘it ain’t fer me, it’s fer a lady,’ I says; an’ then we both laughed.

“‘What sort of a bunnit do you want?’ she says.

“‘Wa’al, I dunno,’ I says, ‘this is the fust time I ever done anythin’ in the bunnit line.’  So she went over to a glass case an’ took one out an’ held it up, turnin’ it ’round on her hand.

“‘Wa’al,’ I says, ’I guess it’s putty enough fur ‘s it goes, but the’ don’t seem to be much of anythin’ to it.  Hain’t you got somethin’ a little bit bigger an’—­’

“‘Showier?’ she says.  ‘How is this?’ she says, doin’ the same trick with another.

“‘Wa’al,’ I says, ’that looks more like it, but I had an idee that the A 1, trible-extry fine article had more traps on’t, an’ most any one might have on either one o’ them you’ve showed me an’ not attrac’ no attention at all.  You needn’t mind expense,’ I says.

“‘Oh, very well,’ she says, ‘I guess I know what you want,’ an’ goes over to another case an’ fetches out another bunnit twice as big as either the others, an’ with more notions on’t than you c’d shake a stick at—­flowers, an’ gard’n stuff, an’ fruit, an’ glass beads, an’ feathers, an’ all that, till you couldn’t see what they was fixed on to.  She took holt on’t with both hands, the girl did, an’ put it onto her head, an’ kind o’ smiled an’ turned ’round slow so ’t I c’d git a gen’ral view on’t.

“‘Style all right?’ I says.

“‘The very best of its kind,’ she says.

“’How ‘bout the kind?’ I says.

“‘The very best of its style,’ she says.”

John laughed outright.  David looked at him for a moment with a doubtful grin.

“She was a slick one, wa’n’t she?” he said.  “What a hoss trader she would ‘a’ made.  I didn’t ketch on at the time, but I rec’lected afterward.  Wa’al,” he resumed, after this brief digression, “’how much is it?’ I says.

“‘Fifteen dollars,’ she says.

“‘What?’ I says.  ’Scat my ——!  I c’d buy head rigging enough to last me ten years fer that.’

“‘We couldn’t sell it for less,’ she says.

“‘S’posin’ the lady ‘t I’m buyin’ it fer don’t jest like it,’ I says, ‘can you alter it or swap somethin’ else for it?’

“‘Cert’nly, within a reasonable time,’ she says.

“‘Wa’al, all right,’ I says, ‘do her up.’  An’ so she wrapped the thing ‘round with soft paper an’ put it in a box, an’ I paid for’t an’ moseyed along up home, feelin’ that ev’ry man, woman, an’ child had their eyes on my parcel, but thinkin’ how tickled my wife would be.”