Well, there's some satisfaction in havin' a thick shell; then you don't mind bein' stepped on.

Yet, I don't know; sometimes I think fellers of Sim's kind enjoy bein' stepped on, provided the boot that does it is patent leather." "I wonder why they came here," I mused.
"Who?
the Coltons?
Why, for the same reason children go to the circus, I shouldn't wonder--to laugh at the clowns.

I laugh myself sometimes--though 'tain't always at their kind of clowns.

Speakin' of that, young Carver's in good company this evenin', ain't he ?" "Who were those fellows in the auto ?" I asked.
"Didn't you recognize them?
One was Phil Somers--son of the rich widow who owns the big cottage at Harniss.

'Tother is a bird of the same flock down visitin' em.