first round she proved by intoning "Think you boys could stand
another--you got a dividend coming" that, though she was but a woman,
she knew the complete and perfect rite of cocktail-drinking.

Outside, Babbitt hinted to Rogers, "Say, W. A., old rooster, it comes
over me that I could stand it if we didn't go back to the lovin' wives,
this handsome ABEND, but just kind of stayed in Monarch and threw a
party, heh?"

"George, you speak with the tongue of wisdom and sagashiteriferousness.
El Wing's wife has gone on to Pittsburg. Let's see if we can't gather
him in."

At half-past seven they sat in their room, with Elbert Wing and two
up-state delegates. Their coats were off, their vests open, their faces
red, their voices emphatic. They were finishing a bottle of corrosive
bootlegged whisky and imploring the bell-boy, "Say, son, can you get us
some more of this embalming fluid?" They were smoking large cigars and
dropping ashes and stubs on the carpet. With windy guffaws they were
telling stories. They were, in fact, males in a happy state of nature.

Babbitt sighed, "I don't know how it strikes you hellions, but
personally I like this busting loose for a change, and kicking over a
couple of mountains and climbing up on the North Pole and waving the
aurora borealis around."

The man from Sparta, a grave, intense youngster, babbled, "Say! I guess
I'm as good a husband as the run of the mill, but God, I do get so tired
of going home every evening, and nothing to see but the movies. That's
why I go out and drill with the National Guard. I guess I got the nicest
little wife in my burg, but--Say! Know what I wanted to do as a kid?
Know what I wanted to do? Wanted to be a big chemist. Tha's what I
wanted to do. But Dad chased me out on the road selling kitchenware, and
here I'm settled down--settled for LIFE--not a chance! Oh, who the devil
started this funeral talk? How 'bout 'nother lil drink? 'And a-noth-er
drink wouldn' do 's 'ny harmmmmmmm.'"

"Yea. Cut the sob-stuff," said W. A. Rogers genially. "You boys know I'm
the village songster? Come on nowsing up:

Said the old Obadiah to the young Obadiah,
'I am dry, Obadiah, I am dry.'
Said the young Obadiah to the old Obadiah,
'So am I, Obadiah, so am I.'"

X

They had dinner in the Moorish Grillroom of the Hotel Sedgwick.
Somewhere, somehow, they seemed to have gathered in two other comrades:
a manufacturer of fly-paper and a dentist. They all