He shook out the garments one by one and hung them on a bush, chattering
his comments. He set the ticking clock on a stump.

The man at the fire slipped a piece of meat between two slabs of toasted
bread and began to eat. He still held the open book in his hand but his
eyes were watching the tramp.

The vagrant was orally appraising his find, exhibiting the wisdom of one
who has begged garments at back doors for the purposes of peddling them
to second-hand shops.

"A moucher," observed the man at the fire. He continued aloud, evidently
and sardonically exercising his vocabulary, plainly enjoying the
amazement he provoked by his style of language. "The spirit of a stray
cat at midnight, the tastes of the prowling hyena! The fat thief I saw
running away into the woods! When such as these began to take to the
road, knight-errantry vanished from the face of the earth. The varlets
borrowed the grand idea of care-free itinerancy and debased it, as
waiters borrow a gentleman's evening dress for their menial uniform, and
drunken coachmen wear the same head-gear that a duke wears to a wedding!
Why prove evolution by searching for a man with a tail? The performances
of human nature must convince any thinking man that we have descended
from apes!"

The astonished tramp stared for a short time at this person who employed
such peculiar language--then mumbled an oath and shook his head.

He began to try on the frock-coat, paying scant attention to the other's
monologue. The coat was a ludicrous misfit; it would not meet over the
bulging belly; its tails dragged on the fat man's heels.