gs that I shut my eyes on every day.

When I gets back on the gate I tries to figure out this Mallory gent;
but I can't place him. He's no Willie, and he's no dope, I can see that.
With his age and general get-up, though, he ought to be pullin' out
fifty or so a week. What's he been at all this time?

I was just curious enough to stroll over and take a look at him. He has
his coat off, pluggin' away on the job and doin' the kind of work that I
could learn to play with any time I had a day off. Not that I'm lookin'
for it. Bein' head office boy suits me down to the ground. That's bein'
somethin', even if they do pay you off with a five and a one. But if
you're a live one you'll get tipped as much more. And you don't have
cold chills up the spine every time the boss lugs down an after
breakfast grouch.

Course, a duck like Mallory can't get in any such game; so he's got to
dig away at the filin' case and wear his last summer's suit until
Christmas. Diggin' and keepin' quiet seemed to be his only play. Just as
though he'd ever win any medals by the way he stacked papers away in
little pasteboard boxes!

He wins somethin' else, though. One day the general manager rushes into
Mallory's corner after somethin' he wanted in a hurry, and by the time
he'd found it he'd pied things from one end of the coop to the other.
Mallory was just tryin' to straighten out the mess, when along comes
Piddie, with that pointed nose of his in front. Piddie don't ask any
questions; he throws a fit. Why, he had Mallory on the carpet for forty
minutes by the clock, givin' him the grand roast, and the only time
Mallory opens up to tell him how it was he shuts him off with a, "That
is sufficient, Mr. Mallory! I am here to get results, not excuses. Is
that quite clear?"

"Yes, sir," says Mallory.

Say, but he did it well! He looks that peanut headed snipe straight in
the eye all the time after that and takes what's comin' to him without
turnin' a hair. It was "Yes, Mr. Piddie," and "No, Mr. Piddie"; but
nothin' else. And the cooler and politer he was, the wilder Piddie got.
When I hears him tell Mallory that another such break will cost him his
job, I was achin' to throw the letterpress at him and break him in two.
I couldn't hardly wait for Mallory to shut the door before I let loose.

"Say, Piddie," says I, "if you don't think you'll sleep easy to-night
unless you give some one the bounce, why not fire me? Go on, now; I'll
make out a case fo