t's shop; it might be a good idea to consult him as to what
was the best way to begin. As for telling funny stories--did he for the
life of him know one to tell? He racked his brain in vain. There were
two books that he remembered having seen in the Astor Library, _The
Percy Anecdotes_, and Mark Lemon's _Jest Book_; perhaps the State
Library had them.... Stay! Did not Willoughby himself somewhere
introduce an anecdote of a distinctly humorous nature?

"It ain't much," said Buck, dropping Thackeray to the floor. "I read the
whole thing once.--No, I guess I'm thinkin' of _The County Fair_, a
drammer that I saw at the Bee-jou. But I guess they're all the same,
those Fairs."

"Say Doc," he went on presently, "I'm going to double you on Number
Seven, beginning from to-morrow, hear?"

Number Seven was one of the stiffest of Klinker's Exercises for All
Parts of the Body. Queed looked up absently.

"That's right," said his trainer, inexorably. "It's just what you need.
I had a long talk with Smithy, last night."

"Buck," said the Doctor, clearing his throat, "have I ever--ahem--told
you of the famous reply of Dr. Johnson to the Billingsgate fishwives?"

"Johnson? Who? Fat, sandy-haired man lives on Third Street?"

"No, Dr. Samuel Johnson, the well-known English author and--character.
It is related that on one occasion Dr. Johnson approached the fishwives
at Billingsgate to purchase of their wares. The exact details of the
story are not altogether clear in my memory, but, as I recall it,
something the good Doctor said angered these women, for they began
showering him with profane and blasphemous names. At this style of
language the fishwives are said to be extremely proficient. What do you
fancy that Dr. Johnson called them in return? But you could hardly
guess. He called H them parallelopipedons. I am not entirely certain
whether it was parallelopipedons or isosceles triangles. Possibly there
are two versions of the story."

Buck stared at him, frankly and greatly bewildered, and noticed that the
little Doctor was staring at him, with strong marks of anxiety on his
face.

"I should perhaps say," added Queed, "that parallelopipedons and
isosceles triangles are not profane or swearing words at all. They are,
in fact, merely the designations applied to geometrical figures."

"Oh," said Klinker. "Oh."

There was a brief pause.

"Ah, well!... Go on with what you were telling me as we walked up,
then!"

"Sure thing.