Nothing in the world could have so worked upon the desire of the
yearning observer beyond the fence.

"Honest, Penrod--you ain't goin' to touch me if I come in your yard?" he
called. "Honest?"

"Cross my heart!" answered Penrod, holding the bottle away from Sam.
"And we'll let you drink all you want."

Maurice hastily climbed the fence, and while he was thus occupied Mr.
Samuel Williams received a great enlightenment. With startling rapidity
Penrod, standing just outside the storeroom door, extended his arm
within the room, deposited the licorice water upon the counter of the
drug store, seized in its stead the bottle of smallpox medicine, and
extended it cordially toward the advancing Maurice.

Genius is like that--great, simple, broad strokes!

Dazzled, Mr. Samuel Williams leaned against the wall. He had
the sensations of one who comes suddenly into the presence of a
chef-d'oeuvre. Perhaps his first coherent thought was that almost
universal one on such huge occasions: "Why couldn't _I_ have done that!"

Sam might have been even more dazzled had he guessed that he figured not
altogether as a spectator in the sweeping and magnificent conception of
the new Talleyrand. Sam had no partner for the cotillon. If Maurice
was to be absent from that festivity--as it began to seem he might
be--Penrod needed a male friend to take care of Miss Rennsdale and he
believed he saw his way to compel Mr. Williams to be that male friend.
For this he relied largely upon the prospective conduct of Miss