in offer him small wages," said
Dan'l, with a wink. "It's kinder takin' him at his own figger."

"And THAT mightn't pay! But ye don't think o' bringin' him HERE in
this house? 'Cept you're thinkin' o' tellin' him that yarn o' yours
about the hoss trade to beguile the winter evenings. I told ye ye'd
hev to pay yet to get folks to listen to it."

"Wrong agin--ez you'll see! Wot ef I get a hundred thousand folks to
pay me for tellin' it? But, speakin' o' this young feller, I
calkilated to send him to the Turkey Buzzard Hotel;" and he looked at
his sister with a shrewd yet humorous smile.

"What!" said his sister in alarm. "The Turkey Buzzard! Why, he'll be
starved or pizoned! He won't stay there a week."

"Ef he's pizoned to death he won't be able to demand any wages; ef he
leaves because he can't stand it--it's proof positive he couldn't stand
me. Ef he's only starved and made weak and miserable he'll be easy to
make terms with. It may seem hard what I'm sayin', but what seems hard
on the other feller always comes mighty easy to you. The thing is NOT
to be the 'other feller.' Ye ain't listenin'. Yet these remarks is
shrewd and humorous, and hez bin thought so by literary fellers."

"H'm!" said his sister. "What's that ye was jest sayin' about folks
bein' willin' to pay ye for tellin' that hoss trade yarn o' yours?"

"Thet's only what one o' them smart New York publishers allowed it was
worth arter hearin' me tell it," said Dan'l dryly.

"Go way! You or him must be crazy. Why, it ain't ez good as that
story 'bout a man who had a balky hoss that could be made to go only by
buildin' a fire under him, and arter the man sells that hoss and the
secret, and the man wot bought him tries it on, the blamed hoss lies
down over the fire, and puts it out."

"I've allus allowed that the story ye hev to tell yourself is a blamed
sight funnier than the one ye're listenin' to," said Dan'l. "Put that
down among my sayin's, will ye?"

"But your story was never anythin' more than one o' them snippy things
ye see in the papers, drored out to no end by you. It's only one o'
them funny paragraphs ye kin read in a minit in the papers that takes
YOU an hour to tell."

To her surprise Dan'l only looked at his sister with complacency.

"That," he said, "is jest what the New York publisher sez. 'The
'Merrikan people,' sez he, 'is ashamed o' bein' short and peart and
funny; it lacks dignity,' sez he; 'it looks funny,' s