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These books, with this array of scholarly and well-known authors, illustrated with carefully prepared engravings, well printed and well bound, became at once formidable competitors for patronage and went into use in many places where the McGuffey Readers had served at least two generations of pupils. The Harvey Readers stood no chance in this competition.
I ain't a-bawlin', am I? And I don't get so much as a bean out of this mix-up, all on account of me bein' tied up with a lot of hounds that quits fightin' before they're half licked." "That's so," said Captain Scraggs, wiping his eyes with his grimy fists. "I declare you're out in the cold, McGuffey, and it ain't right.
I think mebbe I might ha' done a little better myself, but then it ain't every day a feller can turn an eighteen-dollar trick on a corpse." "Comin' to lunch with us?" McGuffey demanded. "Sure. Wait a minute till I run forward an' see if the lines is all fast." He stepped out of the cabin and presently Gibney and McGuffey were conscious of a rapid succession of thuds on the deck.
"Well, he wasn't a-tellin' me." Mr. Gibney's tones were ominous; he glared at his friend suspiciously as from the Maggie's cabin issued forth Scraggsy's voice raised in song. "Hello! The old boy's thermometer's gone up, Bart. Listen at him. 'Ever o' thee he's fondly dreamin'. Somethin's busted the spell an' I'll bet a cooky it was ready cash." He menaced Mr. McGuffey with a rigid index finger.
The surf, dashing in under her fantail, had more power than McGuffey's engines, and, foot by foot, the Maggie proceeded to dig herself in. Mr. Gibney listened for five minutes to the uproar that rose from the bowels of the little steamer before he whistled up Mr. McGuffey. "Kill her, kill her," he ordered. "Your wheel will bite into the sand first thing you know, and tear the stern off her.
McGuffey while the latter was disposing of Jack Flaherty, which he did, via the rail, even as the towboat men had disposed of Mr. Gibney. Dan Hicks followed Flaherty, and the crew of the Maggie crowded the rail as the enemy swam to the float, crawled up on it and departed, vowing vengeance. "All's well that ends well, gentlemen," Mr. McGuffey announced.
"One hundred an' fifty per cent. efficient," McGuffey declared. Neils Halvorsen said nothing, but grinned like the head of an old fiddle. Mr. Gibney appeared to swell visibly, after the manner of a turkey gobbler. "Thanks, Scraggsy an' you, too, Bart.
As business men, the publishers of McGuffey's Readers desired to learn the truth about the situation of the South and its probable future. They asked Dr. McGuffey to take a trip through the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi and make report to them at Cincinnati. This he did, visiting all the larger towns where he was usually the honored guest of some graduate of the university.
As she hauled away from the wharf, Messrs. Gibney and McGuffey might have been observed seated on the stern bitts smoking, the picture of contentment. Pirates under the law they might be, but of this they knew nothing and cared less. With them, self-preservation was, indeed, the first law of human nature.
So I took his club away an' hugged him until I broke three ribs, an' he was always good after that. I wanted t' be king, but I didn't believe in sheddin' no blood for the mere sake of office. "Well, McGuffey, I was king of Aranuka for nearly six months. I was a popular king, too, an' there was never no belly-achin' at my decisions.