Kilo

the wall, trading bits of indolent gossip with Pap Briggs, when Eliph' Hewlitt drove his horse Irontail down Main Street, and pulled up before the hotel. Pap Briggs had not swallowed h

ny other reason, and he was always uncomfortable with them, for they were a plain, unmistakable misfit, and felt, as he said, "like I got my mouth full o' tenpenny nails." When out of Sally's sight he avoided this

lly interested. If this was the home of Miss Sally Briggs, it followed that when he had completed his courtship, and had won her affections and held them, it would be his home, also, and he was curious to see whether it was a town h

t as Sahara; but Eliph' Hewlitt knew it at once for a good town, for the street was knee deep in dust, which meant much trade, and the four buildings at the corners of Main and Cross Streets were of brick, which meant profitable business. There were a couple of other brick build

our of the dwellings "out Main Street" had conspicuous lawns that had felt the blades of a lawn mower, but most of the yards were merely grass, with flower beds filled with the more hardy kinds of flowers, such as would grow tall and show over the top of the surrounding grass. The plank walks, which on Main and Cross Streets were made of

of the street before the buildings on each corner, and the dirt beneath was worn away by the scraping of the feet of the many horses that had been tied to the rails. Jus

e town, and Eliph'

tood the Kilo Hotel, and before it Eli

d his chair forward, and got out

" asked Eliph'

ed it," said the landlord. "If you had to keep it you'd more likely say it w

Eliph'. "I've

t I figgered Kilo had the hottest mean summer temperature, and the meanest hot summer temperature on earth, and it's hotter over a kitchen stove than

y around the corner. He stood and looked at Irontail a minute critically, and then felt the horse's hocks an

lled around the corner, "Hey, Daniel!" and

rontail's mouth again, and Daniel looked

s hand on Irontail's hock again. Daniel fe

ke of that?" asked S

otts," said the old man, shaking

upon the conversatio

e stable, and shut up," and S. Potts and Daniel hastil

's the matter with my

no harm, but he can't be satisfied to just come around and git a horse and lead it to the stable. He's got to draw attentio

too servile manner, and a way of speaking of the men of the town and the farmers of the surrounding country as if he owned them. Having bought horses of many of them, he knows their bad traits, and he has an air of knowing much more than he would willingly tell regarding them. He is not inquisitive about the stranger's business, and is willing to give him information. Probably it is his trade of

o the hostler. "Say, Potts, Billy's out, ain't he?" Potts growls out the answer, "Doc Weaver's got him out. Won't be back till seven." The liveryman pulls slowly at his cigar, and runs his hand over his hair. "How's the bay mare's hoof today?" he asks. Potts shakes his head. "That's right," says the liveryman, "it don't do to take no chances with a hoof like that. And we hav

this dollar and cent world. Potts drives the rig around to where you are standing, and the liveryman sends Potts back to get a clean laprobe instead of the one that is in the buggy. He pats the horse on the n

ia in the town itself. From the liveryman he could learn which minister, if there were more than one, would be the best to have head his list of subscribers, which lady was head of the Society, and what society she was head of. He took one

you got her

all us propputy owners can do to keep 'em from goin' clean out o' sight. City cou

ferson, Pap," suggested the landlord. "If you liv

ole was sayin' to me to-day? He was sayin' it was a disgrace to Kilo to have the public square rented out an' a crop o' buckwheat growin' in it. He says we ought to plant it in grass an' stick a fountai

ary would look better, so long as we ain't got water works to make the fountain fount out water. B

ch to live, anyhow, especially when you've got a daughter to support, and no money comin' in, to speak of. And just when some does come in, along comes a pesky book a

ries help and comfort and uplift, and leaves it scattered around, one dollar down and one dollar a month until paid; who but the humble but useful book agent? To mention but one book, Jarby's Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art has ca

hair, preparing to run away, but the landlord le

id, "is your

the book agent,

in the face, and as he looked the air of suspici

exclaimed. "Isn'

human knowledge didn't recognize your old side pardner in the field of sellin' improvin' and intellectooal

ked Eliph'

. "Why, I MARRIED Kitty, Sammy. For an actual, truthful fact I did.

. "Eliph' Hewlitt is t

ll sellin' books! Well, I don't want to discourage your ambitiousness, but I guess you've struck Kilo about the worst time in the century. Ever hear of a literary writer called Sir Walter Scott? Well, si

cloth, twenty dollars half mor

r Walters in red leather myself. So did everybody in Kilo; at least

Sally--" bega

rth of Sir Walter Scott, two dollars down and one dollar a month until paid; but I calculate them ten volumes will last Kilo quite a spell, and if worst comes to worst she won't buy no more literatoor till she gits paid up on Sir Walter. I figger from my own sense of feelin's that about the worst time to sell a feller books is when he is stil

s hand across his whis

id softly, "that Kilo was the most

another kind of horse, and that's why I say you've miscalculated your comin'. If I was you I'd go elsewhere and come back later. Kilo has got more books now than she can handle without straining something, and just now her mind's off on another tack. We struck a bi

ed parcel that had been lying on his knees under his left arm. He

Strangers welcome, I suppose? I'm rather fond of missionary sales, and I think

ns gr

re to be took by the hand and given a front seat. I'd go around with you, but I've got my taxes to pay, like Pap here, and I don't actually need any pink tidies. It ain't far; just up to Doc Weaver's; two blocks up, and you

there; he tucked them under his arm, a