mise anything. Then some day you get out with the gang and 'fall,'
and the next morning R. E. Morse is sitting up on the edge of your bed
giving you the horrible ha-ha.

"Well, anyhow, I finally agreed to take him home. He lived in
Clarksville, Ark. He gave me the roll to pay our bills with and buy
the tickets and one thing and another, while he went down to the bath
to boil out. But say, the hardest job of my life was not to 'pinch'
that coin and 'duck.' It was mine by rights. He 'd never have kept it
if I had n't jumped in and saved it for him. But, thank God, I can say
one thing, I never stole a cent in my life. I may have separated three
or four guys from their stuff, perhaps, at different times; but they
always got a run for their money, and if they dropped it it was n't my
fault. So I just could n't bring myself to do it. And I was thankful
afterwards that I did n't.

"The happiest year I ever had came to me on account of that trip--and
the unhappiest. But I would n't give up the pleasant memories if I had
to go through twice the troubles again.

"'The banister of life is full of slivers,' as old man Bradley used to
say, and when a fellow 'hits the slide,' he's apt to pick up a splinter
or two. But I 'll tell you, if you 've only got some happy times that
you 've had with your mother or sisters, your wife, or your girl, to
look back to and think about, when you 're in hard luck, it's a kind of
a bracer, and saves your life----"

He suddenly stopped. I followed his gaze, and turning around saw
Murray and three other friends coming toward me. I felt it an
ill-timed interruption; but I ordered cigars and liquid refreshments,
and introduced, all but Murray, to Mr. Edward Campbell, which I had
learned was the proper name of my little friend.

I was needed, Murray explained, "to make the fifth man in some game of
theirs which could not be played to advantage with less;" and knowing
that I was to work late, they had taken a chance of finding me here.

In vain I begged to be excused, pleading indisposition, the lateness of
the hour, anything and everything which might have served to drive them
off. But "the evening was young," "the table was ready," and I "ought
to be accommodating," and so I said good-bye to Checkers, and slipping
him a dollar, told him to come to my office next day, and I would talk
with him of another matter.

He thanked me, saying he would be there, and shaking my hand, bid us
a