aving all the fun--not Bonnie Bell."

"I ain't having no fun worth speaking of myself," says I. "But she's
doing well enough--she's disgusting healthy--sounder in wind and limb
than anybody else in this town. And she's busy too; she's found a new
kind of car that she says she's got to have. She says the Wisners bought
one a little shinier than hers."

"Well, she can have whatever she wants. We are doing pretty well, seems
like. I just went into a little speculation last week that will maybe
pay for that new car."

"What's it about this time, Colonel?" I ast him.

"Well, it has something more to do with this here war. Whenever there is
a war somebody makes money and everybody loses it. Now you see they're
using a awful lot of sharpnel over there--bullets packed up in packages
ready to be busted open. It takes a certain kind of lathe to turn them
sharpnel, and there is only one kind of lathe in this country that does
it faster than any other; and the people that makes sharpnel can't get
enough of them. Well, I bought the control of that there lathe. Looking
around not long ago, I found a little stove factory down in the sand
hills; and I bought it and put a few of them lathes in there and started
a little company.

"Besides, I control them lathes that goes into all the other factories
where they make sharpnel. Shouldn't wonder if we'd run into a little
money before long--enough to buy a car--five hundred thousand dollars
or so. If they got to have sharpnel I suppose we might as well make 'em
and make 'em good."

"Well, Colonel," says I, "I hope you'll find enough to do, so that one
of these days you can be right comfortable."

"So do I," says he, and he sticks out his legs again, with his hands in
his pockets. "But sometimes I almost lose heart about it. Things looks
mighty sad to me, because I can't find no game that's interesting for to
play."

"How about that running-for-alderman business?" says I.

"I'm looking that over," says he. "I know a good many of the fellows
over on the west side of our ward. My freckles helps me some in that
part of the ward. They can't look at freckles like mine and call me
anything but a honest man. Our ward is in two parts, and a little wears
silk socks and a good deal of it don't. Wisner, he's strong with them
that does. He maybe ain't so strong with them that makes eight dollars a
week. Maybe none of them works for Wisner, but plenty of other people
that works for eight dollar