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  dying to meet Mr. J. Archibald McKackney, whom I know by reputation of course for his famous Whisker Collections."

The conscientious Wilkins protested that his young acquaintance was ineligible because his face was as smooth as a hard-boiled egg, and called him a "fiddle without any strings." But this Mr. Arthur Harrison Colby was a perisistent [sic] youth and he argued with much spirit that while Mr. Wilkins was able to handle seafaring folk, he had already run out of this web-footed material and was invading new territory in which he was apt to "find seventeen kinds of trouble." He quoted Professor Peabody as an example of the perils that confronted the musical pilgrim, and wound up with this proposition:

"Now, I can guarantee to take care of a dozen numbers on your chart among my own acquaintances if you will ring me in as assistant on the harmonious round-up." Wilkins thought it over and finally wired me the circumstances with a request for my O.K. I was glad to send my approval and 48]