-who was a tremendous Christian--was much
stronger in the things he had forgotten. So the discussions often lasted
till far into the night, and Mr. Pupkin would fall asleep and dream of a
splendid argument, which would have settled the whole controversy, only
unfortunately he couldn't recall it in the morning.

Of course, Pupkin would never have thought of considering himself on an
intellectual par with Mallory Tompkins. That would have been ridiculous.
Mallory Tompkins had read all sorts of things and had half a mind to
write a novel himself--either that or a play. All he needed, he said,
was to have a chance to get away somewhere by himself and think. Every
time he went away to the city Pupkin expected that he might return with
the novel all finished; but though he often came back with his eyes red
from thinking, the novel as yet remained incomplete.

Meantime, Mallory Tompkins, as I say, was a mighty intellectual fellow.
You could see that from the books on the bamboo bookshelves in the
sitting-room. There was, for instance, the "Encyclopaedia Metropolitana"
in forty volumes, that he bought on the instalment plan for two dollars
a month. Then when they took that away, there was the "History of
Civilization," in fifty volumes at fifty cents a week for fifty years.
Tompkins had read in it half-way through the Stone Age before they
took it from him. After that there was the "Lives of the Painters," one
volume at a time--a splendid thing in which you could read all about
Aahrens, and Aachenthal, and Aax and men of that class.

After all, there's nothing like educating oneself. Mallory Tompkins knew
about the opening period of all sorts of things, and in regard to people
whose names began with "A" you couldn't stick him.

I don't mean that he and Mr. Pupkin lived a mere routine of studious
evenings. That would be untrue. Quite often their time was spent in much
less commendable ways than that, and there were poker parties in their
sitting-room that didn't break up till nearly midnight. Card-playing,
after all, is a slow business, unless you put money on it, and, besides,
if you are in a bank and are handling money all day, gambling has a
fascination.

I've seen Pupkin and Mallory Tompkins and Joe Milligan, the dentist, and
Mitchell the ticket agent, and the other "boys" sitting round the table
with matches enough piled up in front of them to stock a factory. Ten
matches counted for one chip and ten chips made a cent--