ked out of the window. Then the
peddler folded up his pack and strapped it, and turned to grandpa and
said, "I'll take a beer."

Grandpa didn't understand him. He didn't know about the sign, and if the
peddler had said, "I'll take a set of plush furniture," or "Give me a
barrel of coal oil," it would have meant just as much to him. Grandpa
looked at him as if he was crazy. "Do you keep it real cold?" said the
peddler. "What?" said my grandpa. "Why, the beer. Because that's the way
I like it. And come to think of it, I'll take a bucket. It's hotter'n
blazes and my throat is caked with dust."

[Illustration: "I'll Take a Beer"]

Then grandpa thought that the peddler was mad and was mockin' him
because he didn't buy anything, and that the peddler had heard about his
temperance work and was tryin' to be insultin'. So he said, "If you're
thirsty, here's plenty of slops."

So then the peddler flew all to pieces. "Well, this is what I'd like to
know. I want you to tell me. I want to know why you make fools of
people. I want to know what's the matter with me. You won't buy of me,
and you won't sell to me. And I'd like to know what I've done. I'm a
man, the same as you. And you've got beer to sell. And you have no right
to discriminate, even if I was a nigger, which I'm not. I've been
respectful to you, and I don't deserve this here treatment. And I won't
stand it. You've either got the right to sell it, or you ain't; and if
you ain't I'll have the law on you, and if you have, I want the
beer--that's what I want. I speak right out what I think. And what right
have you to put up a sign like that and attract people from the road if
you didn't mean to sell it?" And he pointed to the sign.

"What sign?" said grandpa, comin' around and lookin' up and seem' it.
"Tut, tut," said grandpa, completely dazed like. I run up-stairs and
hid, but I could hear. Then grandma came out and said: "Look here!
That's just a prank of our grandson. It's too bad! It's a shame. Sit
down and rest and I'll bring you somethin'." Grandpa went off sommers;
and pretty soon grandma came out with a glass clinkin' with ice, and
after a bit I heard the peddler say, "Is this blackberry wine?" And
grandma said, "Yes." And the peddler said: "Well, it's better'n beer,
and I thank ye. You've saved my life. And if you advertised this here,
you couldn't make enough of it." Then the peddler seemed to grow bolder
somehow and finally he came back to the wine and he sai