I reckon that bill was some of a liar herself, not lying outright, but jest hinting a lie.

They is a lot of mean, stingy-souled kind of people wouldn't never lie to help a friend, but Doctor Kirby wasn't one of 'em.
"But," I says, "when that crowd finds out Alonzo ain't going up they will be purty mad." "Oh," says he, "I don't think so.

The American public are a good-natured set of chuckle-heads, mostly.

If they get sore I'll talk 'em out of it." If he had any faults at all--and mind you, I ain't saying Doctor Kirby had any--the one he had hardest was the belief he could talk any crowd into any notion, or out of it, either.

And he loved to do it jest fur the fun of it.