ly drunk the world was not such a
rotten place to live in after all!

As a rule, on these occasions, Ferris first went to the Hampton store.
There he was wont to cash his check, pay his longstanding bill, order
his new supplies--and then, with a free heart, sally forth to the
Hampton tavern. But to-night, having money in his pocket apart from the
check, he decided to pay a preliminary call at the tavern, just by way
of warming up, before going on to the store.

There were few people in the barroom at so early an hour of the evening
and on so early an evening of the week. Link nodded affably to one or
two men he knew and bade them line up at the bar with him. After the
second drink he prepared to leave. To the tavern's proprietor, who was
mildly surprised at the brevity of his call, Ferris explained that he
was going across to the store to get his check cashed and that he would
be back later.

Whereat the proprietor kindly offered to save Link the journey by
cashing the check for him; a suggestion Ferris gladly accepted. He
passed the indorsed check across the bar and received for it a
comfortably large wad of wilted greenbacks which he proceeded to intern
with tender care in an inside pocket of his vest, where he moored them
with a safety-pin. Then he ordered another drink.

But to this new order there was an instant demurrer. Two strangers, who
had been drinking at a corner table, bore down upon Link right
lovingly; and recalled themselves to his memory as companions of his on
a quite forgotten debauch of a year or two back.

Link did not at all remember either of the two. But then he often
failed to recall people he had met on a spree, and he did not like to
hurt these cordial revelers' feelings by disclaiming knowledge of them.
Especially when they told him merrily that, for this evening at least,
his money was made of wood and that he must be their guest.

Never before had he met with such wholesouled hospitality. One drink
followed another with gratifying speed. Once or twice Ferris made
halfhearted proffers to do some of the buying. But such hints seemed to
hurt his hosts' feelings so cruelly that he forbore at last, and
suffered himself to drink entirely at their expense.

They were much the nicest men Link had ever met. They flattered him.
They laughed uproariously at his every witticism. They had a genius for
noting when his glass was empty. They listened with astonished
admiration to his boastful reci