And meantime, Bob, you keep the first chance for me." He drove away, leaving the youthful diplomatist standing with his bare feet in the dust.

For a minute or two the young gentleman amused himself by a few light saltatory steps in the road.

Then a smile of scornful superiority, mingled perhaps with a sense of previous slights and unappreciation, drew back his little upper lip, and brightened his mottled cheek.
"I'd like ter know," he said, darkly, "what this yer God-forsaken famerly would do without ME!".