Page:In defense of Harriet Shelley, and other essays.djvu/208

 MARK TWAIN

and saying hoarsely, &quot;Don t hender me! gimme the road! I m a-dying; gimme the road!&quot; Out on the cold platform I sat down and held his head awhile, and he revived. Presently he said:

&quot;Do you reckon we started the Gen rul any?&quot;

I said no; we hadn t budged him.

&quot;Well, then, that idea s up the flume. We got to think up something else. He s suited wher he is, I reckon; and if that s the way he feels about it, and has made up his mind that he don t wish to be disturbed, you bet he s a-going to have his own way in the business. Yes, better leave him right wher he is, long as he wants it so; becuz he holds all the trumps, don t you know, and so it stands to reason that the man that lays out to alter his plans for him is going to get left.&quot;

But we couldn t stay out there in that mad storm ; we should have frozen to death. So we went in again and shut the door, and began to suffer once more and take turns at the break in the window. By and by, as we were starting away from a station where we had stopped a moment Thompson pranced in cheerily, and exclaimed:

&quot;We re all right, now! I reckon we ve got the Commodore this time. I judge I ve got the stuff here that ll take the tuck out of him.&quot;

It was carbolic acid. He had a carboy of it. He sprinkled it all around everywhere; in fact he drenched everything with it, rifle-box, cheese and all. Then we sat down, feeling pretty hopeful. But it wasn t for long. You see the two perfumes began to mix, and then well, pretty soon we made a

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