ving her
voice done over. She had a Mother to keep Cases on her and do the Press
Work. Also there was the Grass Widow who remembered her Husband's name
but had mislaid the Address. Also the Old Boarder who was always under
the influence of Pepsin. He would come down to Breakfast wearing the
Hoof-Marks of a Nightmare Seventeen Hands high and holler about the Food
and tell the Young Lawyer how you can't believe anything you see in the
Papers. Also there was a young man employed in a Furniture Store who
knew that he could put Eddie Sothern on the Fritz if he ever got a Whack
at the Drama. Unless some one got out an Injunction he would recite
Poe's "Raven" while Edythe played Chills and Fever music on the
Once-Piano. So the Astute Reader will understand that this was a sure
enough Boarding House.

Ranse could have stood for the Intellectual Environment if there had
been a little more doing in the Food Line. Instead of stacking it up on
the Table and giving the word to Pitch In, the Refined Landlady had it
brought on in stingy little Dabs by several Beautiful Heiresses who
hated to hold Converse with Ordinary Boarders. About the time that
Ranse, with the Farm Appetite, began to settle down to Business he would
notice all the other People rolling up the Red Napkins and trying to get
them into the Rings. If he kept on eating after that, they would give
him the Eye.

Cereals were strongly featured at the polite Prunery. Ransom, while
employed on the Farm, had often mixed up Chop Feed and Bran for the
Shoats and Yearlings, but he never thought he would come down to eating
it himself. Another Strong Card was a Soup that was quite Pale and had a
couple of Vermicelli swimming around in it. And every Tuesday they
served Dried Currants with Clinkers in them.

Before Ranse had been against the Health Food Proposition many moons he
began to hanker for the yellow-legged Plymouth Rocks, the golden Butter
and the kind of milk that comes from the Cow--take a Tin Cup and go
right out to the Spring House and dip it up for yourself. Poor, eh?

Still, he figured that as soon as he got into Practice and began to
connect with the Currency he could shake the Oatmeal Circuit and put up
at an A1 Hotel.

Like all the other Country Boys of the Story Books, Ransom made a
Ten-Strike in the City. He worked 18 hours per and in Due Time he was
taken into the Firm and stopped shaving his Neck and wore Pajamas
instead of a home-made Nightie.

Then h