you said before."

"You said--"

"You said that before. You said, I said, and I said, so I did. It's
perfectly clear, as the strainer said to the tea."

By this time, all sitting at the table were on a broad grin. As a
matter of fact, the sour-looking man was not liked in that locality,
and the boarders were glad to see somebody "take him down."

"I won't put up with your foolishness!" stormed the man. "I am not
a donkey, and I want you to know it."

"Well, I am glad you mentioned it," said Tom calmly. "Now, there
won't be the least occasion for a mistake."

"Don't insult me!"

"No, sir; I am not looking for work."

"Eh?"

"I said I wasn't looking for work."

"What do you mean by that?"

"That, sir, is a mystery puzzle, and there is a reward of one herring
bone for the correct solution. Answers must be sent in on one side
of the paper only, and have a certificate added that the sender has
not got cold feet."

At this quaint humor, some at the table laughed outright. The
sour-looking individual looked thoroughly enraged.

"I--I'll settle with you another time, young man!" he roared, and
dashed from the room.

"Tom, you made it rather warm for him," remarked Dick.

"Well, he had no right to find fault with our appetites," grumbled
Tom. "We are paying for our meals, and I am going to eat what I please."

"And I don't blame you, young man," said a gentleman sitting opposite.
"Sladen is very disagreeable to us all and makes himself especially
obnoxious to newcomers. He imagines the hotel is here for his especial
benefit."

"Well, he wants to treat me fairly, or I'll give him as good as he
sends, and better."

During the evening Sladen made himself particularly disagreeable to
the Rovers and their chums. This set Tom to thinking, and he asked
one of the hotel men what business the man was in and where he usually
kept himself.

"He is a traveling salesman," was the answer. "He sells horse and
cattle medicine."

"Oh, I see," said Tom, and set his brain to work to play some joke
on the sour-looking vender of stock remedies.

Tom's chance came sooner than expected. A batch of colored folks had
drifted into the place under the impression that a certain planter
was going to give them work at big wages. They were a worthless lot,
the scum of other plantations, and nobody wanted them.

Sitting down, Tom penned the following note and got it to one of the
negroes in a roundabout fashion:

"The man who w