piate which had induced Larry's
mid-day nap.

"You seem to be takin' business very easy, Mr. Highgetty," said Sam,
with an apologetic air, as he closed the door behind him, and Larry
awoke. "Pay must be gettin' better?"

"Better?" said Larry, rubbing his eyes. "I don't want it to be any
better than it is now. Besides, people's comin' in all the time faster
than I can tend to 'em; ev'rybody wants his work done first an' is
willin' to pay extra price to get it. Better, is it? Well, yes; I
should say that no such luck had struck shoemakers in this town in a
long while."

"You haven't half finished what you're on now, Larry," said Sam, taking
the shoe from the cobbler's hand and looking at it.

"That isn't all of it," said the cobbler, with a maudlin wink at his
visitor. "I don't know when I'll have it finished, if I keep on feelin'
as I do now. It's pretty tough, too, bekase that shoe belongs to Mrs.
Judge Prency, an' she's comin' for it this afternoon; but I'm that
sleepy that--" Larry's head gently sought the wall again.

"An' a very good woman she is, Larry. Brace up, my boy, why don't you,
an' finish your work?"

"Eh? Say 'Brace up' to somebody that's not got anythin' in him to
brace him down. She kin wait for her shoe while I'm havin' my aise an'
forgettin' all about work."

"When did you promise the shoe to her?" asked Sam.

"Oh, sometime this afternoon," said Larry, "an' she hasn't come in here
yet. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, ye know the good book
says, Sam. Maybe she won't come in till to-morrow; she's a busy woman;
nobody knows where she's goin' or what she's doin' throughout the day,
an', to tell ye the truth, I thought to myself I'd shut up the shop an'
go home, so if she came there'd not be anybody here to tell a loie
about it."

"Well, Larry, wouldn't it do just as well if there was somebody here to
tell the truth about it?"

"Oh, there, now, Sam," said the shoemaker, rallying himself for an
instant; "they tould me that you was converted in jail, an' that sounds
a good deal like it. Now, Sam, I want to tell ye if ye want to argy on
the subject of the truth, or any other of the moral sintiments, with
any man whatsoever, ye don't want to come to a shoemaker's shop an'
find a fellow who's just had three drinks in him at somebody else's
expense. Now go 'way; come 'round here to-morrow when I'm sober, an'
I'll own up to everything you say, no matter what it is."

"That won't get Mrs