ts got to showin' agin.

"'Got somethin' on your coat there,' he says.

"'Yes,' I says, tryin' to scratch it out with my finger nail.

"'Have a cigar?' he says, handin' one out.

"'Never smoke on an empty stomach,' I says.

"'What?' he says.

"'Bad fer the ap'tite,' I says, 'an' I'm savin' mine fer that second
breakfust o' your'n.'

"'What!' he says, 'haven't you had anythin' to eat?' An' then I told him
what I ben tellin' you. Wa'al, sir, fust he looked kind o' mad an'
disgusted, an' then he laughed till I thought he'd bust, an' when he
quit he says, 'Excuse me, Harum, it's too damned bad; but I couldn't
help laughin' to save my soul. An' it's all my fault too,' he says. 'I
intended to have you take your breakfust with me, but somethin' happened
last night to upset me, an' I woke with it on my mind, an' I fergot. Now
you jest come right into the house, an' I'll have somethin' got fer you
that'll stay your stomach better 'n air,' he says.

"'No,' I says, 'I've made trouble enough fer one day, I guess,' an' I
wouldn't go, though he urged me agin an' agin. 'You don't fall in with
the customs of this region?' I says to him.

"'Not in that pertic'ler, at any rate,' he says. 'It's one o' the fool
notions that my wife an' the girls brought home f'm Eurup. I have a good
solid meal in the mornin', same as I alwus did,' he says."

Mr. Harum stopped talking to relight his cigar, and after a puff or two,
"When I started out," he said, "I hadn't no notion of goin' into all the
highways an' byways, but when I git begun one thing's apt to lead to
another, an' you never c'n tell jest where I _will_ fetch up. Now I
started off to tell somethin' in about two words, an' I'm putty near as
fur off as when I begun."

"Well," said John, "it's Saturday night, and the longer your story is
the better I shall like it. I hope the second breakfast was more of a
success than the first one," he added with a laugh.

"I managed to average up on the two meals, I guess," David remarked.
"Wa'al," he resumed, "Price an' I set 'round talkin' bus'nis an' things
till about twelve or a little after, mebbe, an' then he turned to me an'
kind o' looked me over an' says, 'You an' me is about of a build, an' if
you say so I'll send one of my coats an' vests up to your room an' have
the man take yours an' clean 'em.'

"'I guess the' is ruther more egg showin' than the law allows,' I says,
'an' mebbe that 'd be a good idee; but the pants caught it the