ool joke under the
impulse of the moment and that the Judge was in no wise responsible for
anything at all that I said any more than he was for my actions."

"Is that all?"

"Yes, I suppose that was the most of it."

Mr. Martin laughed and shook his head, and then said, in a kindly
voice, "No, that wasn't all you wrote. I read some of your
communications as they were printed. You not only apologized for your
practical joke, but you ended by the declaration that you regarded Judge
Granger as a man worthy of confidence, and asserted that if you were a
resident of his constituency you would vote for him. I call that pretty
forgiving."

"But--you see I had done him an unmerited injury," said Jimmy, soberly.
"And so I did all I could to undo it. It was merely playing a white
man's game."

"In spite of the fact that he had cost you your livelihood and done all
he could to hurt you?"

"Oh, that had nothing to do with it! I did him an injury, and--I did the
best I could to undo it."

Martin sat and looked at him admiringly, for a time, and then asked,
"But what are you going to do now that all your trade is aware of your
predicament, and are afraid to employ you?"

"I'll be hanged if I know!" Jimmy admitted, with an air of gravity.
"But--I'll keep on trying. You can bet on that! I'll find some way out
of it, even if I have to begin again in some other line. They all of
them have to admit that I'm honest--that's an asset that nobody can
dispute. We can't all be brilliant and honest at the same time. Some men
are brilliant but fail to gain confidence. Other men are honest but
can't be brilliant. I'm honest but haven't proved brilliant, or
unbrilliant, so I've got the best of the situation--up to date. Someone,
therefore, will give me a chance. So I'm not discouraged. Maybe it's
because I've got imagination. When things go dead wrong with me, I just
imagine that they're not so bad, after all. Cowards and pessimists are
the only ones to whom imagination is a curse. Why--even a crippled dog
has dreams of hunting in his sleep, and he wakes up with hope!"

Jimmy's host seemed to ponder over this crude philosophy for a time as
if bemused by its possibilities, and then suddenly straightened himself
in his chair and leaned forward.

"Do you remember what you said to me in the train one day as to a man's
having faith in whatever he sold? And you talked about an automobile
called the Sayers car? You do, eh? Well, here's someth