a box of
raisins, "what's the matter? Been sitting up with your girl all night?"

"Naw! I wish I had. Wakefullness with my girl is sweeter and more
restful than sleep. No, this is the result of being a dutiful son, and I
am tired. You see Pa and Ma have separated. That is, not for keeps, but
Pa has got frightened about burglars, and he gets up into the attic to
sleep. He says it is to get fresh air, but he knows better. Ma has got
so accustomed to Pa's snoring that she can't go to sleep without it,
and the first night Pa left she didn't sleep a wink, and yesterday I was
playing on an old accordeon that I traded a dog collar for after our dog
was poisoned, and when I touched the low notes I noticed Ma dozed oft to
sleep, it sounded so much like Pa's snore, and last night Ma made me set
up and play for her to sleep. She rested splendid, but I am all broke
up, and I sold the accordeon this morning to the watchman who watches
our block, It is queer what a different effect music will have on
different people. While Ma was sleeping the sleep of innocence under
the influence of my counterfeit of Pa's snore, the night watchman was
broke of his rest by it, and he bought it of me to give it to the son of
an enemy of his. Well, I have quit jerking soda.

"No you don't tell me," said the grocery man as he moved the box of
raisins out of reach. "You never will amount to anything unless you
stick to one trade or profession. A rolling hen never catches the early
angleworm."

"O, but I am all right now. In the soda water business, there is no
chance for genius to rise unless the soda fountain explodes. It is all
wind, and one gets tired of the constant fizz. He feels that he is a
fraud, and when he puts a little syrup in a tumbler, and fires a little
sweetened wind and water in it until the soap suds fills the tumbler,
and charges ten cents for that which only costs a cent, a sensitive soda
jerker, who has reformed, feels that it is worse than three card monte.
I couldn't stand the wear on my conscience, so I have got a permanent
job as a super, and shall open the 1st of September.

"Say, what's a super? It isn't one of these free lunch places, that the
mayor closes at midnight, is it?" and the grocery man looked sorry.

"O, thunder, you want salt on you. A super is an adjunct to the stage. A
supe is a fellow that assists the stars and things, carrying chairs and
taking up carpets, and sweeping the sand off the stage after a dancer