to 'old my 'ed 'igh
instead of 'umping. It's in toes, down 'eels, young feller, an' don't be
'ard on the bally hanimal. He'd gimme lessons only I was frightened, but
out aways from town the ground was softer for falling, an' I gained
courage. Happens Miss Polly's house was opposite. I scrambled down
ungainly, shoved a pebble in along Sam's withers, and let this gent
explain just how to set an 'ard-mouthed 'unter. You 'olds 'is 'ed,
placin' the 'and on the 'orn of the saddle, so. Then hup! That pebble
done the rest.

They claim these flying men is safe while they stays in the air, herding
with cherubs. That's what's the matter. It's only when this early
aviator came down--bang--that he lit on his temper, and sat denouncing
me. Yes, I'd been misunderstood, and when I told him it was all for the
best he got usin' adjectives. He bet me his diamond ring to a dollar
he'd ride Sam, and I must own the little man had grit. He'd have won,
too--but for Sam.

Now, it's partly due to this 'ere entertainment, and the diamond ring I
gave her, that Miss Polly began to perceive me with the naked eye, and
said I might come to supper.

And that evening was most surely wonderful, in a parlor all
antimacassars and rocker chairs with pink bows. She showed me plush
photo albums, and hand-painted pictures of ladies with no clothes on.
She played _Abide with Me_ on the harmonium; she made me write poetry in
her birthday book. There was champagne wine, the little cigarettes with
dreams inside, and a bottle no bigger'n my thumb smellin' so fierce it
well-nigh blew my head off. Oh, it was all so elegant and high-toned
that I got proud of being allowed indoors.

Her people was real society, her poppa an army general, ruined by the
war, her mother prime Virginian. But then she'd gone on the stage, so
there was mean suspicions.

I hold suspicion to be a form of meanness when it touches women. My
mother would have shied at naked ladies, and dad was powerful agin
cigarettes. As for the smell, so fierce it had to be bottled, I'll own
up I was shocked. But then you see mother, and dad, an' me being working
people, was not supposed to feel the high-toned senses which belongs
with wealth. It's not for grade stock like me to set up as judge on
thoroughbreds, or call a lady immoral for using a spoon whar I should
need a shovel.

No, I was playing worldliness for fear this lady'd think me ignorant. I
was no more'n a little child strayed among civiliz