...Jim, you
used to be a human bein' that stood up for Charlie Ladd."
"Laddy, I'm lined up beside you with both guns," replied Jim,
plaintively. "Hungry? Say, the smell of breakfast in that kitchen
made my mouth water so I near choked to death. I reckon we're
gettin' most onhuman treatment."
"But I'm a sick man," protested Ladd, "an' I'm agoin' to fall over
in a minute if somebody doesn't feed me. Nell, you used to be fond
of me."
"Oh, Laddy, I am yet," replied Nell.
"Shore I don't believe it. Any girl with a tender heart just
couldn't let a man starve under her eyes...Look at Dick, there.
I'll bet he's had something to eat, mebbe potatoes an' gravy, an'
pie an'--"
"Laddy, Dick has had no more than I gave you--in deed, not nearly
so much."
"Shore he's had a lot of kisses then, for he hasn't hollered onct
about this treatment."
"Perhaps he has," said Nell, with a blush; "and if you think
that--they would help you to be reasonable I might--I'll--"
"Well, powerful fond as I am of you, just now kisses 'll have
to run second to bread an' butter."
"Oh, Laddy, what a gallant speech!" laughed Nell. "I'm sorry,
but I've Dad's orders."
"Laddy," interrupted Belding, "you've got to be broke in gradually
to eating. Now you know that. You'd be the severest kind of a
boss if you had some starved beggars on your hands."
"But I'm sick--I'm dyin'," howled Ladd.
"You were never sick in your life, and if all the bullet holes I
see in you couldn't kill you, why, you never will die.
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