him, while Lily did the best she could on enough assorted nutriment to
feed six mascots.

Considering the start he had made that morning, the Wildcat realized,
with his seventh sandwich, that life isn't so bad if you manage to live
through it. When he began the afternoon shift his ancient philosophy
had returned, and to the clatter of the activity about him he
contributed his rambling voice. Presently the words of his song
recruited a few converts from the gang about him; and by four o'clock,
with the freight moving faster than it had for many a day, the hollow
spaces in the long pier were filled with the echoes that lifted from an
intermittent chorus which proclaimed that

"I kin load a steamboat, load it full wid freight;
I kin load a steamboat when it's leavin' late.
Dat's de reason I'se as happy as a bee,
I don't botheh work, an' work don't botheh me."

Throughout the late hours of the afternoon the eyes of the foreman were
on the Wildcat. "Hustlin' nigger. Make him a straw boss tomorrow if
this keeps up."

2.

Honey Tone realized that rank imposes commensurate obligation before
his Temple of Luck campaign had lived a week. Too much rank imposed too
much obligation, and so the Swamic Church and the Faith Healing and the
Palm Reading Magi and several other verbal branches of his project were
discarded before the several deppity soopreem leaders got too soopreem
to handle. The backbone of his income was at once the Temple Fund; and
this important business demanded and received all of his energy except
that demanded by his elaborate pictures of the New World African Colony
in Brazil.

The Temple Fund, paying all investors a hundred per cent a week, was
popular from the start. On the first dividend day Honey Tone made the
grade without difficulty, and all subscriptions were repaid, together
with a bonus of a like amount. Immediately after the ceremony of
repayment was completed, the backwash of investment began to roll in,
and by the evening the promoter counted more than a thousand dollars in
his hip pocket treasury. On the next day a new group of subscribers to
whom the news had been retailed milled about the doors of the temporary
Temple for a chance to register and donate their investments. Honey
Tone, operating in a rented house, herded the investors into a room
where his voice could pulverize the sediment of reluctance which
remained in his hearers' minds, leaving no dregs of doubt that