teams. And he brought those loads of furniture back O. K., dry and
without a scratch, though I couldn't sleep all night listening to the
buckets of rain dashing against the house and thinking of Hank drunk
out there in it with the furniture and wagons in splinters and the
horses dead maybe. And honest, when I saw him pull up into the barns,
I just hauled him off that seat and--well--I just said things, told him
what I thought of him and how I appreciated what he'd done. 'And now,
Hank,' I says, 'you can have the greatest old jag you've ever planned
on for this.'

"And I'm goshed if he didn't laugh out kind of funny and says he,
'Billy, I'm so goldarned wet right now that I couldn't stand another
drop of wetness anywhere. But all these five hours that the rain was
a-sloshing me I kept thinking of them there apple dumplings with cream
that Mrs. Evans makes (Hank always calls the old woman Mrs. Evans).
So, Billy, if it's all the same to you and I could get full on them
there apple dumplings, why, them's my choice.'

"Well--say, I just jumped to the telephone and I guess the old woman
was making apple dumplings before I got through talking. Anyway, Hank
filled up so that he said he felt like a flour barrel with an apple
tree a-sprouting out of it. And Doc Philipps says it's a good sign,
Hank liking sweet things that way, because a man soaked in alcohol
can't abide sweets.

"And so that's Hank. Now this week I hired that little spindle-legged
Barney boy. I hired him to keep this dumbed office clean so's my old
woman wouldn't raise such hell every time she steps in here. I'm
goshed if this here stove don't get fuller of ashes quicker than any
other stove in Green Valley. And you know the boys who come in here do
spit about careless like and that dumbed screen door is always open and
the calendars do get specked up considerable. And the old woman is
just where I don't want her being upset about anything.

"Well, I hired that Barney boy to keep the place clean. You know that
So-and-So (we won't mention any names) fired him because he said the
kid stole money. Well, now--Grandma, you know that's a hard thing to
start out a boy in life with in a town of this size, especially a
little spindle-legged one at that. I felt real sorry for the young one
so I calls him in here day before yisterday and I says:

"'Look here, Barney, could you keep this place clean?'

"'Sure,' he says.

"'All right, then sail in now.