or
somebody, I forget now what her name was, and she was a better girl than
ever. What we need is more of the spirit of Christ, and the world would
be better."

"What we want is about ten thousand Christs. We ought to have ten or
fifteen right here in Milwaukee, and they would find plenty of business,
too. But this climate seems to be too rough. Say, did I tell you about
Pa and Ma having trouble?"

"No, what's the row?"

"Well, you see Ma wants to economize all she can, and Pa has been
getting thinner since he quit drinking and reformed, and I have kept on
growing until I am bigger than he is. Funny, ain't it, that a boy should
be bigger than his Pa? Pa wanted a new suit of clothes, and Ma said she
would fix him, and so she took one of my old suits and made it over for
Pa; and he wore them a week before he knew it was on old suit made over,
but one day he found a handful of dried up angle worms in the pistol
pocket that I had forgot when I was fishing, and Pa laid the angle worms
to Ma, and Ma had to explain that she made over one of my old suits for
Pa. He was mad and took them off and threw them out the back window, and
swore he would never humiliate himself by wearing his son's old clothes.
Ma tried to reason with him, but he was awfully worked up, and said he
was no old charity hospital, and he stormed around to find his old suit
of clothes, but Ma had sold them to a plaster of Paris image peddlar,
and Pa hadn't anything to wear, and he wanted Ma to go out in the alley
and pick up the suit he threw out the window; but a rag man had picked
them up and was going away, and Pa, he grabbed a linen duster and put it
on and went out after the rag picker, and he run, and Pa after him;
and the rag man told a policeman there was an escaped lunatic from the
asylum, and he was chasing people all over the city, and the policeman
took Pa by the linen ulster, and pulled it off, and he was a sight when
they took him to the police station. Ma and me had to go down and bail
him out, and the police lent us a tarpaulin to put over Pa, and we got
him home, and he is wearing his summer pants while the tailor makes him
a new suit of clothes. I think Pa is too excitable, and too particular.
I never kicked on wearing Pa's old clothes, and I think he ought to wear
mine now. Well, I must go down to the sweetened wind factory, and jerk
soda," and the boy went out and hung up a sign in front of the store:

SPIN