drink whiskey. This happened just at coan-shuckin' time. Hell, Ah
don't even know what it was about, but Ah got to quarrellin' with
a feller Ah'd been right smart friends with. Then he laid off an'
hit me in the jaw. Ah don't know what Ah done next, but before Ah
knowed it Ah had a hold of a shuck-in' knife and was slashin' at
him with it. A knife like that's a turruble thing to stab a man
with. It took four of 'em to hold me down an' git it away from me.
They didn't keep me from givin' him a good cut across the chest,
though. Ah was juss crazy drunk at the time. An' man, if Ah wasn't
a mess to go home, with half ma clothes pulled off and ma shirt
torn. Ah juss fell in the ditch an' slep' there till daylight an'
got mud all through ma hair.... Ah don't scarcely tech a drop now,
though."

"So you're in a hurry to get overseas, Chris, like me," said
Andrews after a long pause.

"Ah'll push that guy Anderson into the sea, if we both go over on
the same boat," said Chrisfield laughing; but he added after a
pause: "It would have been hell if Ah'd killed that feller,
though. Honest Ah wouldn't a-wanted to do that."



"That's the job that pays, a violinist," said somebody.

"No, it don't," came a melancholy drawling voice from a lanky man
who sat doubled up with his long face in his hands and his elbows
resting on his knees. "Just brings a living wage...a living wage."