Page:Hugh Pendexter--Tiberius Smith.djvu/147

 "‘And does Slouchy git value received for those stamps?' asked Mac, humbly.

"‘Certainly,' declared Tib, promptly, 'I shall always honor one of these stamps.'

"Williams grinned broadly, and stated that he would start in on the morrow and take a holiday while earning no stamps, and incidentally monopolize the talking-machine. Tib readily assented, but that night he unpacked some blank records and for several hours quoted into the machine from the Bible. 'I guess Mr. Williams will have earned his holidays,' he grinned to me, as he quit.

"Next morning the entire gang accompanied Slouchy to the cabin. They sighed as he gravely threw down a wad of stamps and asked his followers kindly to keep quiet so as not to disturb him. Then he slipped on a roll, and the buzzer began to glide. Well, say, if you could have seen the look of horror on his rugged face as he saw the writing on the wall! It simply sent him pasty white in a minute. For Tib, in picking out those verses that are licensed to jar an unwholesome man, had liberally supplied Slouchy's name to the text, and the warnings had an unpleasant personal trend. 'Oh, ye generation of vipers! Oh, ye Slouchy Williams!' rippled the record in Williams's astounded ear. 'Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink and play poker. Woe unto them