THINK I expected to pay you?" he said. "Did you think I expected
to get money on my own old bones?" He slapped himself harshly
upon the chest and legs. "Do you think a bank'll lend money on a
man's ribs and his broken-down old knee-bones? They won't do it!
You got to have some BUSINESS prospects to show 'em, if you
haven't got any property nor securities; and what business
prospects have I got now, with that sign of yours up over yonder?
Why, you don't need to make an OUNCE o' glue; your sign's fixed
ME without your doing another lick! THAT'S all you had to do;
just put your sign up! You needn't to----"

"Just let me tell you something, Virgil Adams," the old man
interrupted, harshly. "I got just one right important thing to
tell you before we talk any further business; and that's this:
there's some few men in this town made their money in off-colour
ways, but there aren't many; and those there are have had to be a
darn sight slicker than you know how to be, or ever WILL know how
to be! Yes, sir, and they none of them had the little gumption
to try to make it out of a man that had the spirit not to let
'em, and the STRENGTH not to let 'em! I know what you thought.
'Here,' you said to yourself, 'here's this ole fool J. A. Lamb;
he's kind of worn out and in his second childhood like; I can put
it over on him, without his ever----'"

"I did not!" Adams shouted. "A great deal YOU know about my
feelings and all what I said to myself! There's one thing I want
to tell YOU, and that's what I'm saying to myself NOW, and what
my feelings are this MINUTE!"

He struck the table a great blow with his thin fist, and shook