that know about this dippy streak of his, he's
the thankfulest cuss you ever saw. Alicia? He could hardly get there
quick enough to suit him; and the knot's to be tied inside of the next
month.

"Marryin's all right," says I to Ferdy, "so long's you don't let the
habit grow on you."

XVII

WHEN SWIFTY WAS GOING SOME

Say, I don't play myself for any human cheese tester, but I did think I
had Swifty Joe Gallagher all framed up long ago. Not that I ever made
any special study of Swifty; but knowin' him for as long as I have, and
havin' him helpin' me in the Studio, I got the notion that I was wise
to most of his curves. I've got both hands in the air now, though.

Goin' back over the last few months too, I can see where I might have
got a line on him before. But, oh no! Nothin' could jar me out of
believin' he wouldn't ever run against the form sheet I'd made out.
The first glimmer I gets was when I finds Joe in the front office one
day, planted before the big lookin' glass, havin' a catch as catch can
with his hair.

"Hully chee!" says he, dippin' one of my military brushes in the wash
basin. "That's fierce, ain't it, Shorty?"

"If it's your nerve in helpin' yourself to my bureau knickknacks," says
I, "I agree with you."

"Ah, can the croak!" says he. "I ain't eatin' the bristles off, am I!"

"Oh, I'm not fussin'," says I; "but what you need to use on that thatch
is a currycomb and a lawn rake."

"Ah, say!" says he, "I don't see as it's so much worse than others I
know of. It's all right when I can get it to lay down in the back.
How's that, now?"

"Great!" says I. "Couldn't be better if you'd used fish glue."

Maybe you never noticed how Swifty's top piece is finished off? He has
a mud coloured growth that's as soft as a shoe brush. It behaves well
enough when it's dry; but after he's got it good and wet it breaks up
into ridges that overlap, same as shingles on a roof.

But then, you wouldn't be lookin' for any camel's hair finish on a nut
like Swifty's--not with that face. Course, he ain't to blame for the
undershot jaw, nor the way his ears lop, nor the width of his smile.
We don't all have gifts like that, thanks be! And it wa'n't on purpose
Swifty had his nose bent in. That come from not duckin' quick enough
when Gans swung with his right.

So long as he kept in his class, though, and wa'n't called on to
understudy Kyrle Bellew, Swifty met all the specifications. If I was
wa