"You're entirely too modest," says he. "Now, I remember several
occasions when you have----"

"Oh, I gen'rally have my nerve with me, if that's what you mean," says
I.

"But I don't mean that," says he. "Perhaps finesse is the better word."

"It's all the same to me," says I. "If I've got it in stock, it's
yours. What do I work it on?"

"Mr. Higgins," says he.

"Then score up a goose egg in advance," says I. "It would take a
strong-arm hypnotizer to put the spell on Ira."

Mr. Robert grins. "Then you have already tested Mr. Higgins'
conversational powers?" says he.

"Almost lost my voice gettin' him to say good mornin'," says I. "Say,
you'd think he'd done all his talkin' by cable, at a dollar a word.
Where'd he drift in from, anyway?"

"Boothbay Harbor," says Mr. Robert.

"Is that a foreign country," says I, "or a nickname for some flag
station?"

"It's quite a lively little seaport, I believe," says Mr. Robert, "up