“Oh, Lord!” cried John.

“Yes, sir,” said David, unheeding, “I allowed ’t I’d walk ’round with my mouth open a spell, an’ git a little air on my stomech to last me till that second breakfust; an’ as I was pokin’ ’round the grounds I come to a sort of arbor, an’ there was Price, smokin’ a cigar.

“‘Mornin’, Harum; how you feelin’?’ he says, gettin’ up an’ shakin’ hands; an’ as we passed the time o’ day, I noticed him noticin’ my coat.  You see as they dried out, the egg spots got to showin’ agin.

“‘Got somethin’ on your coat there,’ he says.

“‘Yes,’ I says, tryin’ to scratch it out with my finger nail.

“‘Have a cigar?’ he says, handin’ one out.

“‘Never smoke on an empty stomach,’ I says.

“‘What?’ he says.

“‘Bad fer the ap’tite,’ I says, ‘an’ I’m savin’ mine fer that second breakfust o’ your’n.’

“‘What!’ he says, ‘haven’t you had anythin’ to eat?’ An’ then I told him what I ben tellin’ you.  Wa’al, sir, fust he looked kind o’ mad an’ disgusted, an’ then he laughed till I thought he’d bust, an’ when he quit he says, ’Excuse me, Harum, it’s too damned bad; but I couldn’t help laughin’ to save my soul.  An’ it’s all my fault too,’ he says.  ’I intended to have you take your breakfust with me, but somethin’ happened last night to upset me, an’ I woke with it on my mind, an’ I fergot.  Now you jest come right into the house, an’ I’ll have somethin’ got fer you that’ll stay your stomach better ‘n air,’ he says.

“‘No,’ I says, ‘I’ve made trouble enough fer one day, I guess,’ an’ I wouldn’t go, though he urged me agin an’ agin.  ’You don’t fall in with the customs of this region?’ I says to him.

“‘Not in that pertic’ler, at any rate,’ he says.  ‘It’s one o’ the fool notions that my wife an’ the girls brought home f’m Eurup.  I have a good solid meal in the mornin’, same as I alwus did,’ he says.”

Mr. Harum stopped talking to relight his cigar, and after a puff or two, “When I started out,” he said, “I hadn’t no notion of goin’ into all the highways an’ byways, but when I git begun one thing’s apt to lead to another, an’ you never c’n tell jest where I will fetch up.  Now I started off to tell somethin’ in about two words, an’ I’m putty near as fur off as when I begun.”

“Well,” said John, “it’s Saturday night, and the longer your story is the better I shall like it.  I hope the second breakfast was more of a success than the first one,” he added with a laugh.

“I managed to average up on the two meals, I guess,” David remarked.  “Wa’al,” he resumed, “Price an’ I set ‘round talkin’ bus’nis an’ things till about twelve or a little after, mebbe, an’ then he turned to me an’ kind o’ looked me over an’ says, ‘You an’ me is about of a build, an’ if you say so I’ll send one of my coats an’ vests up to your room an’ have the man take yours an’ clean ’em.’

“‘I guess the’ is ruther more egg showin’ than the law allows,’ I says, ‘an’ mebbe that ‘d be a good idee; but the pants caught it the wust,’ I says.