e didn't say.'

"The Bug's eyes comes together in a angry focus; he thinks he's bein'
made game of.

"Tharupon Enright cuts in.

"'Bug,' he says, all sociable an' suave, 'you mustn't mind Monte. He's
so misconstructed that followin' the twenty-fifth drink he goes about
takin' his ignorance for information. No one doubts but you're a heap
better jedge than him of eloquence, an' everything else except
nosepaint. S'ppose you consider yourse'f a committee to act for the
con'jint camps, an' invite this yere joorist to be present as orator
of the day.'

"The Bug's brow cl'ars at this, an' he asshores Enright that he'll be
proud to act as sech.

"'An', gents,' he adds, 'if you says he ain't got Patrick Henry beat
to a standstill, may I never hold as good as aces-up ag'in.'

"The Red Dog chief announces that all hands must attend a free-for-all
banquet which, inflooenced by the tenth drink, he then an' thar
decides to give at Bland's Abe Lincoln House.

"'Said banquet,' he explains, 'bein' in the nacher of a lunch to be
held at high noon. If the dinin' room of the Abe Lincoln House ain't
spacious enough, an I'll say right yere it ain't, we'll teetotaciously
set them tables in the street. That's my style! I wants everybody, bar
Mexicans, to be present. When I gives a blow-out, I goes fo'th into
the highways an' byways, an' asks the halt an' the lame an' the
blind, like the good book says. Also, no gent need go prowlin' 'round
for no weddin' garments wharin to come. Which he's welcome to show up
in goat-skin laiggin's, or appear wropped in the drippin' an'
offensive pelt of a wet dog.'

"The Red Dog chief, lest some of us is sens'tive, goes on to add that
no gent is to regyard them cracks about the halt an' the lame an' the
blind as aimed at Wolfville. He allows he ain't that invidious, an' in
what he says is merely out to be both euphonious an' explicit, that
a-way, at one an' the same time.

"To which Enright reesponds that no offence is took, an' asshores the
Red Dog chief that Wolfville will attend the banquet all spraddled
out.

"More licker, followed by gen'ral congratulations.

"Bland ag'in comes surgin' to the fore. This time he thinks that as a
main feachure it would be a highly effective racket to reenact the
surrender of Cornwallis to Washington.

"Tutt goes weavin' across to shake his hand.

"'Some folks allows, Pete,' says Tutt, 'that you're as whiskey-soaked
an old fool as Monte. But not me, Pete,