I motioned him to be seated.

He selected a chair, and sat down on the extreme edge of it.
"'I hope you'll pard'n this intrusion, sir,' he began, speaking deliberately, and twirling his hat the while; 'but I've come more'n two hundred miles to see you, sir.' "I expressed myself as pleased, and he continued: 'They tell me, sir, as you're the gentleman as wrote that little book, _How to be Happy, Wealthy, and Wise_." He enumerated the three items slowly, dwelling lovingly on each.

I admitted the fact.
"'Ah, that's a wonderful book, sir,' he went on.

'I ain't one of them as has got brains of their own--not to speak of--but I know enough to know them as has; and when I read that little book, I says to myself, Josiah Hackett (that's my name, sir), when you're in doubt don't you get addling that thick head o' yours, as will only tell you all wrong; you go to the gentleman as wrote that little book and ask him for his advice.

He is a kind-hearted gentleman, as any one can tell, and he'll give it you; and _when_ you've got it, you go straight ahead, full steam, and don't you stop for nothing, 'cause he'll know what's best for you, same as he knows what's best for everybody.