say nothing.
It was all in the game. I know this isn't pleasant to hear," he
digressed.

"I'm listening. Go on, please."

"That was the first stage. Then, together with a hundred other similar
little beasts, a charitable organization got hold of me and transplanted
me out into the country, as they do old footsore hack horses when they
get to cluttering the pavement. Chance ordained that I should draw an old
Norwegian farmer, the first generation over, and that he should draw me.
I fancy we were equally pleased. His contract was to feed me and clothe
me and,--I was twelve at the time, by the way,--to get out of me in
return what work he could. There was no written contract, of course; but
nevertheless it was understood just the same.

"He fulfilled his obligation--in his way. He was the first generation
over, I repeat, and had no more sense of humor than a turtle. He saw that
I had all I could eat--after I'd done precisely so much work, his own
arbitrary stint, and not a minute before. If I was one iota short I went
hungry as an object-lesson. He gave me clothes to wear, after every other
member of the family had discarded them, in supreme disregard for
suitability or fit. He sent me to school--during the months of January
and February, when there was absolutely nothing else to do, and when I
should have been in the way at home. At times of controversy he was
mighty with the rod. He was, particularly at the beginning of our
intimacy, several sizes larger than I. It was all a very pleasant
arrangement, and lasted four years. It ended abruptly one Thanksgiving
Day.

"I remember that day distinctly, as much so as yesterday. Notwithstanding
it was a holiday, I'd been husking corn all day steady, from dark until
dark. There was snow on the ground, and I came in wet through,
chattering cold, hungry, and dog-tired--to find the entire family had
left to celebrate the evening with a neighbor. They did that often of a
holiday, but usually they left word. This time they'd forgotten, or
didn't care. Anyway, it didn't matter, for that day had been the last
straw. So far as I was concerned the clock had struck twelve and a new
circuit had begun.

"I looked about the kitchen for supper, but there was none, so I
proceeded to prepare one suitable to the occasion. Among other things,
the farmer raised turkeys for the market and, although the season was
late, there were a few birds left for seed. I went out to the barn with a
lanter