e a sly poke in the ribs, to show him that he
understood. Toole looked at him with a blank face, and at this the
Colonel slapped his knee, and uttered a mirthful noise that was like the
sound of a man choking. He clapped his greasy hat on his mat of hair and
went out, pausing at the door to look back and grin at the attorney once
more.

Mr. Skinner was trimming a roast. He had just cut off a piece of suet,
which he held in his plump read hand as he listened to the Colonel's
proposition to sell him four nickel-plated fire-extinguishers at ten
dollars each. Perhaps the Colonel spoke to impetuously; to commandingly.
Skinner held the lump of suet offensively near the Colonel's nose as he
answered.

"Fire-extinguishers!" he laughed. "Me buy fire-extinguishers? I wouldn't
give THAT for them."

He shook the suet before the Colonel's eyes.

"No, sir!" he sneered. "I wouldn't give THAT for them. And I throw that
away!"

"Skinner," said the Colonel, growing dangerously red in the face, "don't
you shake no meat in MY face like that! Don't you dare do it! I won't
have no butcher shake meat in MY face. You low-down beef-killer. That's
all you are, a beef-killer."

"Mebby," admitted the butcher indifferently. "Mebby I am, but I don't
buy no fire-extinguishers. And I don't take much stock in agents for
them, neither. No. Nor in gold bricks. Nor green good. No."

The Colonel raised his fist and brought it down on the butcher's counter
so hard that the meat scales danced, and the indicator jerked nervously
across the face of the dial, weighing a half pound of anger. The butcher
leaned back against the shopping block, and gently caressed the handle
of his cleaver. He pointed to the door with his other hand.

"Git out!" he said, and the Colonel scowled but went.

On his way home the Colonel bethought himself of a good excuse to stop
at Miss Sally's. He had left his ax there, and he went to the back
door, this not being a formal call. Miss Sally came to the door when he
knocked, and brought him the ax, and he took the opportunity to say a
bad word for Skinner, and he was astounded to find that she sympathized
with Skinner on his refusal to buy the fire-extinguishers.

"I don't wonder at it," she said, "seeing he has put so much money on
that opery house already. He's done a lot for this town that nobody else
would ever have thought of doin'. Mr Skinner's a very public-spirited
citizen, and to think he made it all out of sellin'