But barrin' the shearin' of
our wool, we are the mildest, most sheepish fellows you could imagine.
I don't reckon now there is a man among us who could be induced to
blat or to butt, under the most tryin' circumstances. My Mary's got
a little lamb, and all the rist of the boys are lambs. But all the
lambs are waned, and clusterin' round the milk pail. Ain't that
touchin'? Come on, now, Ruben, ile up and edify us some more!"
"On what point do you seek enlightenment?" inquired the Thread Man.
Jimmy stretched his long legs, and spat against the stove in pure delight.
"Oh, you might loosen up on the work of a man," he suggested.
"These lambs of Casey's fold may larn things from you to help thim
in the striss of life. Now here's Jones, for instance, he's holdin'
togither a gang of sixty gibbering Atalyans; any wan of thim would
cut his throat and skip in the night for a dollar, but he kapes the
beast in thim under, and they're gettin' out gravel for the bed of
a railway. Bingham there is oil. He's punchin' the earth full of
wan thousand foot holes, and sendin' off two hundred quarts of
nitroglycerine at the bottom of them, and pumpin' the accumulation
across continents to furnish folks light and hate. York here is
runnin' a field railway between Bluffton and Celina, so that I can
get to the river and the resurvoir to fish without walkin'. Haines
is bossin' a crew of forty Canadians and he's takin' the timber
from the woods hereabouts, and sending it to be made into boats to
carry stuff across sea.
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