human
Old man Ben, what do I draw to-morrow morning at nine?
gpt
Hiram, I don't know, I truthfully replied, working my shoulders where he had hit me,
human
Well, I don't mind telling you how I feel--I don't give a Continental sou Marquis what I draw. I feel like fighting wild cats and buzz-saws. Now that Anna Bell Morgan has promised to marry me, nothing else matters.
gpt
I suppose now you will want a porterhouse as big as Rhode Island----
human
And as thick as a London fog, with enough mushrooms to choke an alligator, he broke in joyously.
gpt
Ben--I want you to know right now that I think you are an infernal scoundrel. You know why my brand-new typewriter blew up this morning and started the whole of Quarrytown over into the river, incidentally putting the main line on the bum--and won't tell me!
human
You'd better wait until to-morrow and see what your sentence is before you begin to accuse me,
gpt
Oh, I suppose the 'Sauerkraut' and I will get bounced incontinently. But what do I care? Had it not been for what happened this morning I wouldn't know that a perfectly sweet and innocent girl really loves me. I don't care if this part of the world comes to an end, you can't get me into the doldrums. Besides, I know my hands are clean, and I have done nothing for which they should blame me, but they may be looking for a horrible example--a railroad is a railroad--eh, Ben?
human
I've got a trade now--a way of making a living. I can walk up the street and look any man or woman in the eye, as one who can account for himself, who can do something useful, and at the same time possess the love of a good girl--it's great, Ben! Do you know anything about such things? I shall be no man's dog in the future. Already I've kicked the can off of my tail, to use a figure of speech.
gpt
I don't quite understand you, Hiram,
human
I've been up there on the river where it's so quiet that one's own thoughts are as loud as grand opera, and I have figured it out, he began, inserting his thumbs in the arm-holes of his vest and moving over to look out of the window.
gpt
Of course, you understand, I used the word dog as a figure of speech, but what I mean is that the Gold-Beater, instead of making me work and learn something at the right time, gave me money to spend, and then, along with old women and maidens, old men, and gentry in general, he winked knowingly, indulgently, as I was toboganning to Hades; then of a sudden, inside of a day, I am kicked out, and told to go to work or--Blazes--he didn't care which--me with my head as empty as a base drum and muscles as soft as a jelly fish. Oh, I'm not exactly sore on the Gold-Beater--he did no worse than a million others, but it's all wrong, Ben,
human
Hiram, there's a store on the corner where we can get a soap box, and I'll try to arrange with the police for a place in the square----
gpt
Oh, I see you are like the rest of them; your head is like a cocoanut--a shell that you have to open with a hatchet; then some soft, indigestible stuff, and real brains no more than the milk space inside. Come on, let's get some food,