at is, without property. Goin' anywhere
to-day?"

"There's no place for me to go except over to the old woman's, and I
don't care to go there yet awhile. I wonder why she hasn't been over
here?"

"Who, the girl?"

"No, the old woman. Do you suppose I expect the girl to come?"

"Well, I didn't know," said Mitchell, brushing his stiff hair. "You
never can tell what a girl will do. They keep me guessin' and I'm on to
their curves pretty well. I see that Mrs. Goodwin yesterday evenin'. And
she looked like a full-rigged ship. Guess I'd be a little afraid of her
with her big talk. But you could tackle her all right enough. Say, I'm
sore as I can be, boxin' with you. Is that cigar up by the clock, one
that the prize-fighter give you? Let me take it along. I want to perfume
my way with it. Thanks," he added, taking the cigar before Milford had
said a word. "How do these pants set?"

"They strike me as being a trifle short," said Milford, surveying him.

"That's what I was afraid of, but they dragged the ground till the
peddler left, and then they began to draw up. A man's sure to get the
worst of it when he buys out of a pack. I'd like to have a suit of
clothes made to order, but I can't afford it now. Did you ever have a
suit put up to your own notion?"

"Yes, a few."

"Well, I said all the time that you wan't no common man."

"And right there you struck the ancient and the modern idea of what a
man is--garments. You can't get away from the effect of clothes. The
city and the backwoods are alike. With the exception that the city
insists that the coat shall fit better and the pantaloons be a little
longer," he added, smiling.

"Don't laugh at 'em, Bill; they're all I've got. When a man's got two
pair of briches you may laugh at one, but when he's got only one pair,
don't laugh. Are you goin' to set up here and read that book all day?
What's his name? Whitson?"

"Whittier. I don't know. I'm a Quaker waiting to be moved. I had this
old book with me out West. We used to read it at night in the shack. We
had some pretty smart fellows with us. Some of them pretended to be
ignorant when in fact they had read their names on a sheepskin. They had
been beaten over the head with books till they were sick of them."

"I don't blame 'em," said the hired man. "I'd rather set up with a
corpse than a book."

"Sometimes it's about the same thing," Milford replied. "Did you ever
read the Bible?"

"What do you take me for?"