'Have to' is a horse a man must ride, whether he wants to or no."

But the more Flannery thought about having to pay out one hundred
dollars for one hundred dead insects the less he liked it and the more
angry be became. It could not be denied that one dollar was a
reasonable price for a flea that had had a good education. A man could
hardly be expected to take a raw country flea, as you might say, and
educate it, and give it graces and teach it dancing and all the
accomplishments for less than a dollar. But one hundred dollars was a
lot of money, too. If it had been a matter of one flea Flannery would
not have worried, but to pay out one hundred dollars in a lump for
flea-slaughter, hurt his feelings. He did not believe the fleas were
worth the price, and he inquired diligently, seeking to learn the market
value of educated fleas. There did not seem to be any market value. One
thing only he learned, and that was that the government of the United
States, in Congress assembled, had recognized that insects have a value,
for he found in the list of customs duties this:--"Insects, not crude,
1/4 cent per pound and 10 per cent. ad valorem."

As Flannery leaned over his counter at the office of the Interurban
Express Company and spelled this out in the book of customs duties he
frowned, but as he looked at it his frown changed to a smile, and from a
smile to a grin, and he shut the book, and put it in his pocket. He was
ready to meet the professor.

"Good day to yez," he said, cheerfully, when he went into the little
parlor on Sunday afternoon, and found the professor sitting there,
flanked by his two fellow countrymen. "I have come t' pay ye th' hunderd
dollars Missus Muldoon was tellin' me about."