do you get your
three squares nowadays?"

"Lecture on Lost Arts and Free Love and cure stuttering in one secret
lesson, pay in advance," Avery replied, listlessly. "But there ain't
the three squares in it. I wish I'd been as sharp as you are, and
never let a woman whiffle me into a scrape."

"Nobody ever come it over me," declared Buck, pride slowly replacing
his ire, but he added, gloomily; "excepting her, and I've never
stopped thinking about it, and I've never seen another woman worth
looking at--not for me, even if she did come it over me."

"But she didn't come it over you," insisted Avery. "I'm the one she
come it over, and look at me!" He made a despairing gesture that
embraced all his pathetic appanage. "You are the one that's come out
'unrivaled, stupendous and triumphant,' as your full sheeters used to
say. If I was any help in steering her away I'm humbly glad of it, for
I always liked you, Ivory."

This gradual shifting to the ground of the benefactor, even of the
servile sort, was not entirely placating, as Ivory Buck's corrugated
brow still hinted, but the constant iteration of admiration for his
marvelous shrewdness and good fortune was having its effect. The old
grudge and sorrow that had gnawed at his heart during so many years
suddenly shooed away. The pain was assuaged. It was like opodeldoc
stuffed into an aching tooth. He felt as though he would like to
listen to a lot more of that comforting talk.

"Avery," he cried, with a heartiness that surprised even himself,
"you're a poor old devil that's been abused, and you seem to be all
in." He surveyed the wheezing horse and kicked another spoke from the
yawning wheel.

"Crack 'em down, crack 'em down, gents!" squalled the parrot.

"If it wasn't for Elkanah, there, to holler that to me, with an
occasional 'Hey, Rube!' I couldn't stay in this Godforsaken place
fifteen minutes. There's no one here that can talk about anything
except ensilage and new-milk cows. Now what say? Store your old traps
along o' mine, squat down and take it comfortable. I reckon that you
and me can find a few things to talk about that really amount to
something!"

"I should hate to feel I was a burden on you, Ivory," stammered Avery,
gasping at the amazing generosity of this invitation. "If there's any
stutterers around here I might earn a little something on the side,
perhaps."

"Me with fifty thousand in the bank and letting a guest of mine graft
for a living? Not b