" That,'' continued Peter, " is what I do in the night. I
come up here, and nobody to say anything to, and so I sit
down on the old chest, and cut my hair in the dark. I keep



THE BAT PATH. 233

it jest about so all the time. Do you see how smooth 'tis
behind ? Don't you call that pretty even trimming ? Don't
it look as if it was shaved, now, r'ally ?"

After securing a general assent to his separate questions,
Peter took his candle, and set it upon the floor. Then,
lifting the lid of his chest, he took out from the tUl his
shears and comb, and, holding them up to the amused
visitor, exclaimed, " There's the tools ! and if they ain't the
tools, land ahead ! there never was any tools. I s'pose, if
the truth was known, there's better stufi" in them shears "
(giving them a click) " than there is in any razor this side
of the Bay. I call 'em a httle too hard — jest a leetle grain
— ^but that's a good fault in shears."

The visitor had begun to tire of the subject, interesting
as Peter had the power to make it ; and, shifting uneasily
on his seat, he interrupted that enthusiastic amateur barber
in his attempt to explain the trick of the shingling process,
by saying, "I believe there were some things you wished
to say to me."

" Land ahead !" exclaimed Peter, dropping his shears
upon the floor, " I come pretty near forgetting that. What
if I had forgot that, now ? By the way, don't you want
your hair cut ? I don't know how I'm going to get along,
unless you do have it jest shingled a little ?"

The visitor could see no direct connexion between his
hair and Peter's secrets, and declined the operation.
