The herald., 1914-11-19

head sidewise, and
I to glance up at
me with artless archness from that
| angle, Il lose. that's ALL"
There was nothing elucidatory about
that cryptic phrase. So l inquired
again.
Lose what?" asked her.
oh, nuthin' to get the gurgly goiter
about" replied Mousie Mildred, jab-
bling at the refractory cuticle with the
orange stick. Il drop a little bet that
| make with myself about you when
you limp in. that's all; but seem that
1t was on'y one O. them mind bets, l
don't have to ease any hard gouged
kale to the handbook, and so it's all
right; there's no harm did"
But what was the nature OF the
| bet?"
Il hate to tell yuh," she replied,
going after an imaginary hang.nail
with the cuticle scissors, because
| you're one O them zigs-I mean gents
that's 4 hull lot more dignified than
they look.
III tried to tell yuh about the bet
/ tried to put over with myself you
might get sore as a stockyards
sweeper and start in to rae the plant
to the groun' and fire a volley over
the remains"
treasured her as to that. and again
urged her to unfold the character Of
| her wager with herself.
Well" said she, bestowing another
dazzling upward glance upon me out
of the corner of her wood-violet eyes,
its this way, seem that you're pin
min me to the stick and nickin' me for
what's inside my think-dish.
When you come in, a while ago,
and lamped around the tables, and
| piped me takin' a peak at you, and
then come browsin' over to my table
here, | made one o. them 36-cent mind
bets with myself that you was one @
them oh-you-babesky-do kind, that'd
hardly pass your mitts over to be
made human lookin' before you'd be-
( gin to slip me that DO you like the
theater, Aspasia? line O. Castilian con,
and then get busy guessin' whether I
liked the way they dish up spaghet'
at Dufanti's, or would prefer to tool
out to Foodmanston Inn in a chug-
map al freshco, with the brides twit-
term tweet-tweetie In the trees, and
all nature smilin' like a front-row CELL
on the end Of the line slantin' Pitts
burgh steel magnet in box A.
That's the way have you tucked
away in the back of my bean when
you squat in front of my bench, and
that's the bet / made. Y amt mad
over my tellin' yuh, are yuh? You asst
me, and had to unreel It."
Again / treasured her. and she pro-
coded:
"Yuh can't always tell about a FOB
Il mean a gent-thats there with
that town-tease, hamlet-hoiden, OH
such-larks look about him when he
first breezes into a mitt-maison and
does the hurry pipe aroun' the tables
to sort over the lockers.
You amt the first gamble / lose
with myself tryin' to pick 'em right on
the blow-in, nor the twentieth, when
It comes to that.
I'm Just as often Little Lucy the
Loser when try to pull that read-'em-
quick numbah as any O the rest O the
claw-polishin' dolls scattered aroun'
these works.
I'VE all get in German just as often
as we dope EN- right. AS was sayin'
l handicapped you for one O. them
stout-just stout enough-cut-ups
that'd be purlin' the old numbah nine
bunk into my pinkie-winkie listeners
long before you lifted your paws out
of the soakin' pan. Says / to myself,
This keg-I mean gent-will be dang
lin one O. them cochineal-red-ink feeds
at the Cafe de Noah's Ark at me before
| have time to find out whether he
bites his nails.
I'm Jerry to it now that you
wouldn't kite a claw-trimmin' doll to
a wop or any other kind Of tahb'-dote
for the hull lower half o the island
on account O. bein' 'fraid o what might
come off later when the family was
hepped to it."