hy kind that wins my coin.
They enjoys it more and has a harder time gettin' it."

"Your logic is good, Shorty," says he, "and I think I agree with your
sentiments. But this is a case where charity is only an excuse. The
ladies out at Rockywold are getting up an affair for the benefit of
something or other, no one seems to know just what, and they've put you
down for a little bag punching and club swinging."

"Then wire 'em to scratch the entry," says I. "I don't make any
orchestra circle plays that I can dodge, and when it comes to fightin'
the leather before a bunch of peacock millinery I renigs every time.
I'll put on Swifty Joe as a sub., if you've got to have some one."

Pinckney shook his head at that. "No," says he, "I'll tell Sadie she
must leave you off the program."

"Hold on," says I. "Was it Sadie billed me for this stunt?"

He said it was.

"Then I'm on the job," says I. "Oh, you can grin your ears off, I don't
care."

Well, that was what fetched me out to Rockywold on a Friday night, when
I had a right to be watchin' the amateur try-outs at the Maryborough
Club instead. The show wasn't until Saturday evenin', but Pinckney said
I ought to be there for the dress rehearsal.

"There's only about a dozen guests there now, so you needn't get
skittish," says he.

And a dozen don't go far towards fillin' up a place like Rockywold. Say,
if I had the price, I'd like a shack where I could take care of more or
less comp'ny without settin' up cot beds, but I'll be blistered if I can
see the fun in runnin' a free hotel like that.

These amateur shows are apt to be pretty punk, but I could see that,
barrin' myself, there was a fair aggregation of talent on hand. The star
was a googoo-eyed girl who did a barefoot specialty, recitin' pomes to
music, and accompanyin' herself with a kind of parlor hoochee-coochee
that would have drawn capacity houses at Dreamland. Then there was a
pretty boy who could do things to the piano, a funeral-faced duck that
could tell funny stories, and a bunch of six or eight likely-lookin'
ladies and gents who'd laid themselves out to prance through what they
called a minuet. Lastly there was me an' Miriam.

She was one of these limp, shingle-chested girls, Miriam was. She didn't
have much to say, so I didn't take any particular notice of her. But at
the rehearsal I got next to the fact that she could tease music out of
a violin in great style. It was all right if you shut your eyes,