Page:Brazilian short stories.djvu/36

 And the clerks, customers, the loafers and even the passers-by stopped on the sidewalk to hear the joke, and their laughter sounded like policemen's rattles as they shook until their sides ached.

The wretched creature, bewildered and perfectly serious, tried his best to dispel the misunderstanding:

"I am in earnest and you have no right to laugh. For God's sake, don't make fun of a poor unfortunate who asks for work and not laughter."

The merchant loosened his belt.

"You mean it? Pshaw! Ha! ha! ha! Look here, Pontes, you …"

Pontes left him in the middle of his sentence and went forth with his soul tortured by despair and rage. It was too much. Then everyone spurned him?

He applied at other houses in the town, explained as best he could, implored. The case was judged unanimously as one of the best jokes of the "incorrigible" wag and many persons commented upon it with the usual observation:

"He is still the same! he'll never behave, that devil of a fellow, and he is no longer young. …"

Barred from trade, he turned his attention towards the farms. He looked up an old planter who had dismissed his overseer and stated his case. The Colonel, after listening attentively to his reasons, ending up with the offer to take on the job as overseer on the farm, exploded in a fit of laughter.