'He might get hostile; you can put a wager on it, he'd turn out disagree'ble to a degree, if he did.

No, you-all has got to handle a loonatic with gloves.

I knows a gent who entangles himse'f with a loonatic, askin' questions, an' he gets all shot up.' "'I reckons, however,' says Cherokee, 'that I'll assoome the resk.
Dave an' me's friends; an' I allows if I goes after him in ways both soft an' careless, so as not to call forth no suspicions, he'll take it good-humoured even if he is locoed.' "We-all sets breathless while Cherokee sa'nters down to where Dave's still wropped in them melodies.
"'Whatever be you hummin' toones for, Dave ?' asks Cherokee all accidental like.
"'Which I'm rehearsin',' says Dave, an' he shows he's made impatient.
'Don't come infringin' about me with no questions,' goes on Dave.

'I'm like the ancient Romans, I've got troubles of my own; an' no sport who calls himse'f my friend will go aggravatin' me with ontimely inquis'tiveness.' Then Dave gets up an' pulls his freight an' leaves us more onsettled than at first.
"For a full hour, we does nothin' but canvass this yere question of Dave's aberrations.

At last a idee seizes us.