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"In your present condition of abnormal self-consciousness and apperceptive egotism, I really shouldn't like to say." When the voyage was ended Mr. Lummox went to see Mary Bike at her house, and his father whom he had not seen for ten years at HIS house.

Did he not always accompany his testimonials to himself with his deprecating falsetto laugh and "I dunno why it is," an official disclaimer of merit, "as it were"? Here was a formidable candidate, indeed a traveler, a man of the world, with brains better and quicker than other people's brains; an athlete, yet knightly he would not destroy even a brakeman in the presence of women and children and, finally, most enviable and deadly, the owner and operator of a "little racer"! All this glitter was not far short of overpowering; and yet, though accepting it as fact, the woeful three shared the inconsistent belief that in spite of everything George was nothing but a big, fat lummox.

With a refined absence of natural affection he contented himself with inquiring of the servants as to his father's habits, and if he still wore dress clothes at dinner. The information thus elicited forced him to the conclusion that the old gentleman's circumstances were reduced, and that it was possible that he, John Lummox, might be actually compelled to earn his own living.

I knew I could get two hundred and fifty for him easy, and that Lummox didn't know anythin' of his valoo, and I finally agreed to make the swap even. 'What do you call him? sez I. 'Pegasus, sez he, 'the poet's hoss, on account o' his golden mane, sez he. That made me laff, for I never knew a poet ez could afford to hev a hoss, much less one like that!

"Go change your clothes," said the captain, "and try not to be such a lummox next time." I had no change of clothes, and therefore, I took the first opportunity to get out on the tow-path, wet as I was, and begin again to learn my first trade. It was a lively occupation. There were some four thousand boats on the Erie Canal at that time, or an average of ten boats to the mile.

"You damned lummox," he said, "what d'ye mean by tripping me?" "Me?" gasped Bull, the smile gradually fading and blank amazement taking its place. It was at this moment that a man stepped out of the shadow of the kitchen doorway, a very small withered man.

"Goin' t' ship y' t' the Hospital!" Side gliding to the stove, the cowboy delivered up his quid. "Hee! hee!" giggled the longshoreman. "Guess I'll jus' knock that other eye out!" One-Eye was waltzing back. "Don't count y'r chickens 'fore they're hatched!" he warned. "'Cause here y're gittin' a man o' y'r own size, y' great, big, overbearin' lummox!" Barber held up a hand.

Bigsby shuddered slightly as she recognized the usual preliminary to prolixity, but determined, as far as possible, to make her brother brief. "It mout be two weeks ago," began Dan'l, "that I see John Lummox over at Palmyra, where he'd bin visitin'. He was drivin' a hoss, the beautifulest critter for color I ever saw.

"You're the champion high diver of Car Three." Mr. Snowden, stooping over, grabbed the luckless Teddy by the collar and jerked him to his feet. "Get up, you lummox!" he commanded. Teddy blinked very fast. Mr. Snowden began to shake him. Phil stepped forward quickly and pushed the car manager away. "Wha what!" growled Snowden, an angry light leaping into his eyes.

At school he was a Dummy in Mathematics and a Lummox when it came to Spelling Down, but every Friday afternoon he was out in the lead, wearing Bells. Before he acquired a Vocabulary or accumulated Data, he got by on his Nerve. In later years he never forgot that Facts are non-essential if the Vocal Cords are in tune.