Perth Amboy evening news., 1919-08-08

squire with a grim laugh. II Ike TO
have my friends drop In occasionally"
he explained, "eyen II they have No
special business. But some Of them
ueus q little too often and stay alto
getner too long. They may not have
anything more important to do at the
time than to talk politics OF spin yarns
But 1t often happens that / have; and
In that case, putting my time against
theirs Isn't an even swap. The fact Is.
the average man is so interesting to
himself that he can't imagine that he
may be a pore to other people"
puts me In mind Of an experiences
I once had trying to get rid Of a BORE"
said Isaac, as he settled himself COM
fortably In his chair. Il was doing
quite a little business one winter build
ing pleasure boats to order, and a
neighbor Of mine, an oldish man with
some means and nothing to do, used
to come to my shop every day and
toast himself by the fire and talki
talk talk / from morning till night. II
was rather fussy work / was doing.
and he almost drove me wild telling
old stories and offering advice; but l
remembered my manners and v
let on to him that ! wasn't pleased
with his company. BY the time I'd get
home at night, though. my good ma.
ture would be pretty much gone.
""Why don't you try being a little
cool to him and see II he won't take
the hintT my wife would say; and
finally 1 thought I'd carry out that
idea, although not exactly In the way
she meant.
$50 the next day when I got to the
shop / went right to work on my boat,
without the usual preliminaries. 1t
was a below-zero morning, and when
Mr.. Judkins anne In he made a e
Iine for the stove.
"sWhy, says he, all shivering, you
haven't got a mite of fire!
"tNo,' says /, my work is sort OF
bothersome, and I thought mebbe my
head would be clearer In a cold ROOM
"He tried to argue me out OF That
notion, hut | was kind Of obstinate;
and after shivering round a spell he
went off, and l had the shop to myself
for the balance Of the day. l didn't
get on SO much faster with my work,
though, what with having to stop to
blow on my fingers every few min
utes; and as for my head being clear
er. 1t didn't turn out that way in the
end. When / got home that night 1
realized that / had a hard cold on me.
and I didn't see the shop again for
three weeks.
That would have been quite q price
to pay even II I had got shed Of Mr..
Judkins, but. you see, I hadn't. When
he found l was laid up, he considered
1t his duty to visit the sick, and he
would stay with me for hours. He even
sat up with me a couple Of nights
when I was worst off, and I must own
that he was a grand good hand in sick
ness. When l did get so that I could
60 to the shop, he went on ahead and
built up a rouslng hot fire, so that we
could both be comfortable. He vas
certainly a k~ind-hearted person. I
guess b -es generally are; and that Is
one reason why w lnd 1t so plaguy
hard to get rid Of them. Isn't that so.
sqn.reT
slows that? Oh. yes, l suppose SO"
answered the squire, looking up from
his writing.
Some time later Isaac leisureiy took
his leave. When halfway home, he
halted abruptly. confronted by an en-
tirely new thought.
aBy jingoi" he said to himself. "You
don't suppose the squire meant that
placard partly for me, do your
Youths Companion.