made a good lawyer, wouldn't I, Hiram?"

"I don't know--why?"

"Why, talkin' about sprucin' up, as you call it, you drift to a fire
that occurred across the street from the place where there's a
frowsy-topped waitress that's got you goin'. Well, le's foget it. Do
we go to southern California together, or not? Our pile's dwindlin' on
account o' this butterfly life you're leadin'."

"I--I'd like to, but---- Well, I left home to get a start in the city,
and I think I oughta---- Really, I wanta go, but----" Hiram gave it
up, and his lean face flushed.

"Go on--I didn't interrupt you."

"Well, I--that's all. I want to go to work here."

Tweet laughed with a little snort. "Now looky here," he said, "I think
I savvy you pretty well. If I was to go to work and tell you outright
that you couldn't win Lucy, you'd get bull-headed and try to show me.
But le'me tell you this: You ain't goin' to win her till you get next
to yourself. Now, Lucy's a pretty popular dame with the fellas about
the restaurant. I've seen her joy-ridin' with fellas I know are there
with the coin, and savvy more in a minute than you ever knew. Now,
wait a minute!--don't get excited. All this ain't your fault. It's
the fault o' your past environment. You're a hick, and you can't help
it. You get out and learn somethin' and gather up a few beans. Then
come back and, if you still want the kid, go get her.

"Now, you see this Lucy this afternoon and tell her you're bound out
into the Great Unknown to make your fortune, but that you're comin'
back to see her. Put emphasis on who you're comin' back to see. Then
flee from temptation. Come now--le's swallow this awful pill like a
man."

Hiram thought a long time, looking out the window. In the midst of
this Tweet resumed his paper.

The sensible thing to do was for Hiram to sacrifice love to the
friendship that promised him a start, in order to gain love back more
conclusively in the end. Yes, he loved her--he loved her madly!

Boiling the present situation right down to facts, he had little
confidence in Tweet's boasted powers. He could not reconcile Tweet's
present impecunious condition with his hints of past affluence. But he
liked him instinctively, which, after all, is more human and
satisfactory than liking a person after analyzing him and weighing his
good qualities against his shortcomings. So it was the thought of
Tweet's friendship which finally prompted him to say: "I g