ned Charlton's name.

"Got out, did he?" said Westcott in a maudlin tone. "How'd 'e get out?
How'd 'e like it fur's he went? Always liked simple diet, you know.

"Oh! if I wuz a jail-bird,
With feathers like a crow,
I'd flop around and--

"Wat's the rest? Hey? How does that go? Wonder how it feels to be a
thief? He! he! he!"

Somehow the voice and the words irritated Albert beyond endurance. He
lost his relish for supper and went out on the piazza.

"Git's riled dreffle easy," said Jim as Charlton disappeared. "Fellers
weth idees does. I hope he'll gin Wes'cott another thrashin'."

"He's powerful techy," said the Poet. "Kinder curus, though. I wanted to
salivate Wes'cott wunst, and he throwed my pistol into the lake."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

ISABEL.

What to do about going to see Isabel?

Albert knew perfectly well that he would be obliged to visit her. Isa had
no doubt heard of his arrival before this time. The whole village must
know it, for there was a succession of people who came on the hotel
piazza to shake hands with him. Some came from friendliness, some from
curiosity, but none remained long in conversation with him. For in truth
conversation was quite embarrassing under the circumstances. You can not
ask your acquaintance, "How have you been?" when his face is yet pale
from confinement in a prison; you can not inquire how he liked Stillwater
or Sing Sing, when he must have disliked what he saw of Stillwater or
Sing Sing. One or two of the villagers asked Albert how he had "got
along," and then blushed when they remembered that he couldn't have "got
along" at all. Most of them asked him if Metropolisville had "grown any"
since he left, and whether or not he meant to stay and set up here, and
then floundered a little and left him. For most people talk by routine.
Whatever may be thought of development from monkeys, it does seem that a
strong case might be made out in favor of a descent from parrots.

Charlton knew that he must go to see Isa, and that the whole village
would know where he had gone, and that it would give Isa trouble, maybe.
He wanted to see Isa more than he wanted anything else in the world, but
then he dreaded to see her. She had pitied him and helped him in his
trouble, but her letters had something of constraint in them. He
remembered how she had always mingled the friendliness of her treatment
with something of reserve and coolness. He did not care much for this in
other time