CHAPTER VII.
I MAKE A NARROW ESCAPE.
It is a serious thing to be as bashful as I am.

There's nothing at all funny about it, though some people seem to think there is.

I was assured, years ago, that it would wear off and betray the brass underneath; but I must have been triple-plated.

I have had rubs enough to wear out a wash-board, yet there doesn't a bit of brass come to the surface yet.

Beauty may be only skin-deep; modesty, like mine, pervades the grain.