From the box underneath the seat, the pedler took out a loaf of bread, a slice of butter, and a tin pail full of doughnuts.  Paul, on his side, brought out his bread and gingerbread.

“I most generally carry round my own provisions,” remarked the pedler, between two mouthfuls.  “It’s a good deal cheaper and more convenient, too.  Help yourself to the doughnuts.  I always calc’late to have some with me.  I’d give more for ’em any day than for rich cake that ain’t fit for anybody.  My mother used to beat everybody in the neighborhood on making doughnuts.  She made ’em so good that we never knew when to stop eating.  You wouldn’t hardly believe it, but, when I was a little shaver, I remember eating twenty-three doughnuts at one time.  Pretty nigh killed me.”

“I should think it might,” said Paul, laughing.

“Mother got so scared that she vowed she wouldn’t fry another for three months, but I guess she kinder lost the run of the almanac, for in less than a week she turned out about a bushel more.”

All this time the pedler was engaged in practically refuting the saying, that a man cannot do two things at once.  With a little assistance from Paul, the stock of doughnuts on which he had been lavishing encomiums, diminished rapidly.  It was evident that his attachment to this homely article of diet was quite as strong as ever.

“Don’t be afraid of them,” said he, seeing that Paul desisted from his efforts, “I’ve got plenty more in the box.”

Paul signified that his appetite was already appeased.

“Then we might as well be jogging on.  Hey, Goliah,” said he, addressing the horse, who with an air of great content, had been browsing while his master was engaged in a similar manner.  “Queer name for a horse, isn’t it?  I wanted something out of the common way, so I asked mother for a name, and she gave me that.  She’s great on scripture names, mother is.  She gave one to every one of her children.  It didn’t make much difference to her what they were as long as they were in the Bible.  I believe she used to open the Bible at random, and take the first name she happened to come across.  There are eight of us, and nary a decent name in the lot.  My oldest brother’s name is Abimelech.  Then there’s Pharaoh, and Ishmael, and Jonadab, for the boys, and Leah and Naomi, for the girls; but my name beats all.  You couldn’t guess it?”

Paul shook his head.

“I don’t believe you could,” said the pedler, shaking his head in comic indignation.  “It’s Jehoshaphat.  Ain’t that a respectable name for the son of Christian parents?”

Paul laughed.

“It wouldn’t be so bad,” continued the pedler, “if my other name was longer; but Jehoshaphat seems rather a long handle to put before Stubbs.  I can’t say I feel particularly proud of the name, though for use it’ll do as well as any other.  At any rate, it ain’t quite so bad as the name mother pitched on for my youngest sister, who was lucky enough to die before she needed a name.”