"Then you have got us into an argument about country life that ends--"
began the School-master, indignantly.

"That ends where it leaves off," retorted the Idiot, departing with a
smile on his lips.

"He's an Idiot from Idaho," asserted the Bibliomaniac.

"Yes; but I'm afraid idiocy is a little contagious," observed the
Doctor, with a grin and sidelong glance at the School-master.




X


"Good-morning, gentlemen," said the Idiot, as he seated himself at the
breakfast-table and glanced over his mail.

"Good-morning yourself," returned the Poet. "You have an unusually large
number of letters this morning. All checks, I hope?"

"Yes," replied the Idiot. "All checks of one kind or another. Mostly
checks on ambition--otherwise, rejections from my friends the editors."

"You don't mean to say that you write for the papers?" put in the
School-master, with an incredulous smile.