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"Clean that ear, sir! What the devil you standin' there for?" He returned to his story after a pause. "A n d Jake, he scraped away hyare!" he shouted suddenly, "don't ruggle the skin like that! Can't you see the way I do it? Leave it smooth as a baby, sir yessir!" He worked on in this way all day, talking unceasingly, never shirking a hard job, and scarcely showing fatigue at any moment.
"And so the Tower o' London ain't a tower?" he inquired at last. "No," I answered; "it is composed of several towers surrounded by very strong, battlemented walls." "Ah to be sure," said he, "ah, to be sure! And me 'ave allus thought on it like it was a great big tower standin' in the midst o' the city, as 'igh as a mountain. Humph not a tower ha! disapp'inted I be. Humph! Good night, master.
Then we all bunched in together and drifted off toward the corral, where old Pinto was standin', lookin' hopeless and thoughtful. 'Is this the patient? says the Doc, sort of sighin'. "'It are, says Tom Redmond. "Doc he walks up to old Pinto, and has a look at him, frontways, sideways, and all around.
"Yes," sez Arvilly, who wuz standin' nigh, "that term, man, always includes wimmen when there is any blame or penalty attached, but when it sez 'Man is born free and equal, it means men alone." "Yes," sez Josiah, smilin' real pleasant, "you've happened to hit it jest right, Arvilly." "Well," sez I, "do look and enjoy the beauty that is spread out right before you."
"When I'm a man, I'll swim across the ocean and back again before breakfast, see if I don't." "That'll be quite an undertakin', lad," and the captain's eyes twinkled. "I hope I'll be standin' on the shore when ye git back. I guess ye'll have more cause fer thankfulness then than ye did after eatin' yer dinner to-day.
Well, all folks don't observe things as sharply as I do 'twas a way I was born with. But I passed him at the fork as I came up, an' he was standin' just as solemn an' silent while Mr. Chamberlayne, over from Applegate, was askin' him questions." "What questions? Did you hear them?" "Oh, about his mother an' prospects of the grist-mill.
Ye see hit wouldn't do tall fur me ter go walkin' dem golden streets up dar in Heben wid one o' my years lopped off lake a shoat er a calf dat's been branded. Some o' dem niggers standin' on dat gol' sidewalk would laugh at me. An' dat would hurt my feelin's. Some smart Aleck would be sho ter holler, 'Dar come ole Ben. But he ain't got but one year! Dat wouldn't do, tall, sah."
He'd come to town an' buy a tenement house 'at wouldn't rent, because it was haunted; an' he'd tear it all down except the rooms 'at had been most popular to commit murder in. Then next day he'd run up a swell mansion around these rooms big an' gorgeous, like the Capitol at Cheyenne, with full-grown trees from all over the world, standin' in the front yard.
"I kain't stand up terday an' without standin' up I couldn't hardly be rightfully wedded so Bas air agoin' ter support me, and holp me out thar an' hold me upright whilst I says ther words ... hain't ye, Bas?" The hardly taxed endurance of the conspirator for a moment threatened to break in failure.
Standin' in the middle of the room, with his feet wide apart, is Mr. Adams, like he was waitin' impatient. You'd hardly call him sick abed. I expect it would take a subway smash to dent him any. But, if his man fails to look the part of better days gone by, Ham Adams is the true picture of a seedy sport.
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