lumbago; and that didn't work, neither. But do you think he give up the
ship? Not much; he commenced to explain why he hadn't been able to earn
a living and the reasons why he'd ought to have another chance. Talk!
Well, if I hadn't been warned he'd have landed ME, all right. I never
heard a better sermon nor one with more long words in it.

I actually pitied him. It seemed a shame that a feller who could argue
like that should have to go to the poorhouse; he'd ought to run a summer
hotel--when the boarders kicked 'cause there was yeller-eyed beans in
the coffee he would be the one to explain that they was lucky to get
beans like that without paying extra for 'em. Thinks I, "I'm an idiot,
but I'll make him one more offer."

So I says: "See here, Mr. Blueworthy, I could use another man in the
stable at the Old Home House. If you want the job you can have it. ONLY,
you'll have to work, and work hard."

Well, sir, would you believe it?--his face fell like a cook-book cake.
That kind of chance wa'n't what he was looking for. He shuffled and
hitched around, and finally he says: "I'll--Ill consider your offer," he
says.

That was too many for me. "Well, I'll be yardarmed!" says I, and went
off and left him "considering." I don't know what his considerations
amounted to. All I know is that next day they took him to the poorhouse.

And from now on this yarn has got to be more or less hearsay. I'll have
to put this and that together, like the woman that made the mince meat.
Some of the facts I got from a cousin of Deborah Badger's, some of them
I wormed out of Asaph himself one time when he'd had a jug come down