Vermonter.

"It's moighty bad you're faling, Oi dunno?"

"By gum! I oughter feel bad. Yeou heard Frank talking about jest sech
gol-dinged chumps as I be. He made me so tarnal disgusted with myself
that I wanted to find a hole and crawl into it. The trouble was that I
didn't know where I could find a hole small enough."

"It's a livel head Frankie has, Ephie."

"You bet your boots!"

"Whin he got through talkin' Oi was ashamed to think Oi'd ever even
contimplated makin' a bet."

"And I was the blamed idiot that done the betting, Barney! I thought I
was kinder showin' my nerve. Naow I know I didn't show much of anything
but foolishness. Barney, I'm married. I've got one of the finest little
women that ever stood in shoe leather. And the kid--by gum! the kid's a
ripper! Together me and yeou have made a pretty good thing in that
railroad business. I was brung up on a farm in Vermont. It was called a
pretty good farm, too. My old man was reckoned well off in that
community, but his whole farm wasn't wuth more'n half what I've made in
the last year. It took him years of hard diggin' and scratchin' to git
that place and clear it of debt. Daown in them parts a man that's wuth
ten thousand dollars is reckoned slappin' rich. They make every cent
caount there, Barney. If them folks want anything that costs a dime and
they kin git along any way without it, they git along without it and
save the dime. That's what they call New England thrift. My dad had to
scratch gravel pretty hard to send me to school. I helped aout some
myself, but I'd never gut my schoolin' if he hadn't pinched and saved
for me. Naow here I be, wuth more money in my own right than he's ever
been able to scratch together in his life, and I'm jest darned fool
enough to resk that money on a game of baseball. I kinder cal'late we're
goin' to win that game, but it's jest as Frank says--we may lose it. If
we do, where'll I be?"

"Howld on, Ephie--howld on!" exclaimed the young Irishman. "Tell me
something, my bhoy."

"What is it?"

"How much did yez bet on thot game?"

"If I tell ye, I want yer to promise never to say nuthin' abaout it to
Frank. If I win that bet, I'm goin' to give every cent of my winnings to
some charitable institution. I mean it, by ginger! If I win that bet,
yeou'll never ketch me in a scrape like this ag'in if I live to be four
thousand years old."

"Thot's a good resolution to make, Ephie. Ye know you can trust me.
Oi'll say nivve