He had worked and sweat for what he got, and was now taking his ease in
his roadside inn. I wonder sometimes if anybody in the world experiences
keener joys than unwatched common people.

How we talked! From pugilists we proceeded to telephones, and from that
to wages, hours, and strikes, and from that we leaped easily to Alaska
and gold-mining, and touched in passing upon Theodore Roosevelt.

"I was just thinking," I said, "that you and I can enjoy some things
that were beyond the reach of the greatest kings of the world."

"How's that?" said he.

"Why, Napoleon never saw a telephone nor talked through one."

"That's so!" he laughed.

"And Caesar couldn't have dreamed that such a thing as you are doing now
was a possibility--nor George Washington, either."

"Say, that's so. I never thought o' that."

"Why," I said, "the world is only half as big as it was before you
fellows came along stringing your wires! I can get to town now from my
farm in two minutes, when it used to take me an hour."

I really believe I gave him more of his own business than ever he had
before, for he listened so intently that his pipe went out.

I found that Bill was from Ohio, and that he had been as far south as