and I hope Alfred's high-falutin' preacher uncles and
others won't get red in the face when they hear of it. If you all keep
caterwauling Alfred around, he wouldn't amount to three hurrahs in
Halifax."

"He may work for Doctor Hawkes forty years longer and he will be no
better off than a living. There's no hope for a boy in working for a man
like Doctor Hawkes. The Doctor's all right but he never assisted a human
being to better himself. He's like all other rich men. He just uses men
to pile it up for himself, and any man that can't pile it up for
himself, or don't make a big try to do so, needs shingling. I never had
any relatives to pull me back, and I never had any to put me forward."

"Where is your brother and his wife?" someone asked Uncle Henry.

"Wheeling cinders," came quick as a flash.

"Oh, Uncle Henry, I am surprised."

"Well, the reason I say that, is, they told me that people that did
certain things would sure go there"--and he pointed downwards--"and they
did those very things so what can I say when you ask me where they are?"

* * * * *

Peter Sells and Alfred were close friends. The Sells Bros. Show had
opened early--April 16, 17, 18. It rained or snowed every day during
their engagement in Columbus. The show was to appear in Chillicothe a
few days after leaving Columbus. Peter Sells came into the stage office
and arranged to go to Chillicothe. He had returned from Kentucky to
confer with his brothers. Alfred accepted his invitation to accompany
him to Chillicothe. The after concert, with no performers to present it,
had been omitted for three days. Alfred advised Ephraim Sells that could
he find wardrobe a concert could be given that afternoon and night. The
wardrobe was secured. The announcer made much of the "great minstrel
comedian" who would positively appear in the concert for this day only.
Nat Goodwin and his company, who were to appear in the opera house that
night, were in the audience.

Ephraim, Allen and Peter Sells, and Alfred were seated on a bench in
front of the hotel. Allen Sells was endeavoring to persuade Alfred to
remain with the show.

While the dicker was pending, a young clerk from a store door, yelled to
a passer-by on the opposite side of the street: "Were you at the
circus?" The other yelled: "Yes." "How was it?" "Bum, but the concert's
good. That Al. G. Field that was here last winter in the opera house, is
with them. The concert's the