Chapter III: Going for Sea-Weed

Never king in his coach enjoyed a more exhilarating ride than our three youngsters in the old tip-cart, drawn by the slow cattle along the rough country road. The source of happiness is in our own hearts; and it is wonderful how little it takes to make it run over, in a healthy boy.

A board placed across the cart-box served as a seat; and when one of them tired of riding on that, he would tumble in the hay. Perce wielded the ox-gad at first; but soon the twins wished to drive. Both reached for the whip at once.

"Wait a minute! you can't both have it!" cried Perce. "The oldest first!"

"I'm the oldest," declared Moke.

"So I've heard you say," Perce replied. "But I don't see how anybody ever remembered."

"They looked out for that when they named us," said Moke.

"It was uncle Moses's idea," said Poke. "He told 'em, 'Call the oldest by my first name and the youngest by my last name----'"

"'And that will fix it in folks's minds,'" Moke completed the quotation.

"That was before they discovered the moles," said both together.

"I never thought of that," said Perce. "But whenever anybody asks me which is the oldest, I think of your initials, and run over in my mind--_L_, _M_, _N_, _O_, _P_;--_M_ comes before _P_; then I say, 'Moke's the oldest.' But how could they tell you apart before they saw the moles?"

"They tied a red string around Moke's ankle," said Poke.

"But once the string came off, and Ma thinks it might have been changed," said Moke.

"And to this day she can't say positively but I am Moke, and Moke is me," said Poke.

Perce laughed. "Why didn't you have something besides a couple of teenty-taunty moles to distinguish you?" he asked. "Why didn't one of you be light-complexioned and the other dark? There'd have been some sense in that."

"We couldn't!" said Poke.

"You didn't try," replied Perce.

"We couldn't if we had tried," said Moke. "Twins are always----"

"The same complexion," struck in Poke. "Just like one person."

"No, they're not; there's no rule about that," said Perce. "And when you talk of one person--have you heard of the man over in Kennebunk?"

"What about him?" asked the twins.

"Why, haven't you heard? One half his face," said Perce, "as if you should draw a line straight down his forehead and nose to the bottom of his chin," he drew his finger down his own face, by way of illustration; "one half--it's the right half, I believe--is as black as a negro's. Yes; I'm sure it's the right half."

"Pshaw!" said Moke.

"Oh, Jiminy!" said Poke.

"I don't believe it!" said both together.

"It's true, I tell you!" Perce insisted. "My father has seen him; and my father wouldn't lie."

"He must have had some disease," said Moke.

"He's what they call a leopard," said Poke.

"You mean a leper?" laughed Perce. "No; he isn't a leper, nor an albino. Why, boys! didn't you ever hear of such a case? It's quite common, and it's easily explained."

"I give it up! How do you explain it?" said the twins.

"Simply enough!" exclaimed Perce. "The other side of his face is black too." And he keeled over backward on the hay.

It was an old joke which he had indeed heard his father tell; but it was new to the twins, who were completely taken in by it.

"Throw him out of the cart!" shrieked Poke, half smothered with laughter, at the same time seizing hold of Perce as if to execute his own order.

"I'll jolt him out!" cried Moke, who was driving; and he began to urge the oxen into a heavy, clumsy trot, which shook up the cart and its contents in a way that was more lively than pleasant.

"Oh, don't do that!" cried Perce, with the jolts in his voice. "You'll break the e-g-g-s in my ba-ask-et!"

"I've had one supper, but I shall want another by the time we get to the beach," said Poke.

"So shall I!" cried Perce. "We'll make a big fire on the shore, and have a jolly time. And, I say, boys, let's call for Olly Burdeen, and make him come down on the beach with us to-night."

"That will be fun, if he isn't too proud to go with country people now," replied Moke.

"Since he's been waiting on city folks, he's as stuck up as if he'd tumbled into a cask of molasses," said Poke.

"Olly is all right," said Perce. "He doesn't put on any airs with me. We'll have him with us, anyhow!"