Roast Beef, Medium

weren't for the compositor there'd be an

solutely nothing stirring. We're full up. The Benevolent Brotherhood of Bisons is h

me to stay. After selling Featherloom Petticoats on the road for ten years I don't see myself trailing up and down this town looking for a place to lay my head. I've learned this one large, immovable truth, and that is, that a hotel clerk is

he peerless personage behind the register jarr

t sore, Mrs. McChesney," he beg

oing a man's work and earning a man's salary and demanding t

tter, and sundry papers, as is the manner of personages whe

in passing that if there are any lady Bisons present you needn't bank on doubling me up with them. I've had on

ken, madam. I'm a member of this order myself, and a fin

d immediately you turn away a traveling man who uses a three-dollar-a-day room, with a sample room downstairs for his stuff, who tips every porter and bell-boy in the place, asks for no favors, and who, if you give him a half-way decent cup of coffee for breakfast, will fall in love with the place a

'Son!' echoed th

e of myself like this. I don't get so chatty as a rule, and I know that I could jump over to Monmouth and get first-class accommodations ther

ed the cler

their hats. He's down at the depot now, straightening out our baggage. Now I want to say this before he gets here. He's been out with me just four days. Those four days have been a revelation, an eye-opener, and a series of rude jolts. He used to think that his mother's job consisted of traveling in Pullmans, eating delicate viands turned out by the hotel chefs, and strewing Featherloom Petticoats along t

eyes. He laid a protecting hand on his mother's arm. Emma McChesney was conscious of a

ed. That's what all those banners and things were for. I hope they've got something decent f

, and turned to the clerk. "This is my so

, I'm afraid we are pretty well filled up, but se

n-holder, and eying the pair before him w

hty-seven for the young man. There's-let's see now-who's in eighty-seven? Well, there's

. "Meyers?" she interrupted. "Do you mean Ed

ne, aren't you? He's a great little pi

id he g

minutes ago on the Ashland

hesney. The two let

belligerence. "This cattle-car style of sleeping don't make a hit. I haven't had a decent night'

I ca

and commodious steam-heated sample rooms in connection.' I

. Sims is doing us a great favor. There

you, but-Let's see now. Tell you what I'll do. If I can get the housekeeper to go over and sleep in the maids' quarters just for to-n

t's twice in the same place. The first time was when we were inspired to eat our supper on the diner instead of waiting until we reached here to take the leftovers from the Bisons' grazing. I hope that

ll in possession. The cigar-counter girl had not yet made her appearance. There was about the place a general air of the night befor

re blue serge, and a smart fall hat. The late au

Sims, sonorously. "Have a good night's slee

ld sleep through a vaudeville china-juggling act. But--what an extraordi

et and breathing in great draughts of that unadjectivable air. Her complexion stood the test of the merciless, astringent morning and came up triumphantly and healthily firm and pink and smooth. The town was still asleep. She started to walk briskly down the bare and ugly Main

al and toast and coffee, skimming over her morning paper as she ate. At 7:30 she was back in the lobby, newspaper in hand. The Bisons were already astir. She s

ok of one whose sleep has been brief and feverish. As he came toward his mother you noticed

aid Emma McChesney. "W

long fingers cu

e venomous, "do you know

your mother. If you keep that in your system

an that old favorite of the erotic novelties. It was vibrant with passion. It

McChesney, encou

Jock, 'those two double-bedde

saw such restless cattle. If you'll tell me what makes more noise in the middle of the night than the metal disk of a hotel key banging and clanging up against a door, I'd like to know what it is. My three Bisons were all dolled up with fool ribbons and badges and striped paper canes. When they switched on the light I gave a crack imitation of a tired working man trying to get a little sleep. I breathed regularly and heavily, with an occasional moaning snore. But if those

would be Ed Meyers, of the Str

Bisons. In five minutes they had got together a deck and a pile of chips and were shirt-sleeving it around a game of pinochle. I would doze off to the slap of cards, and the click of chips, and wake up when the bell-boy came in with another round, which he d

ose, smiling. "It is sort of trying,

ock. "Used to it! Do you mean to tel

world is full of Ancient Orders and they're everlastingly getting together and drawing up resolutions and elec

hungry boy in him was uppermost. "That's so. I'm going to have some whea

stomer. I'll be up at the Sulzberg-Stein department store at nine sharp. There's no use trying to see old Sulzberg before ten, but I'll be there, anyway, and s

floor managers on the main floor now. The money those people spend for red and green decorations at Christmas time, and apple-blossoms and pink crepe paper shades in the spring, must

Meyers. His huge bulk overflowed the spindle-legged chair on which he sat. His brown derby was in his hands. His eyes were on the closed door at the other side of the room. So were the eyes of the other two travelers. Jock took a vacant

aid Ed Meyers, sudden

Jock. "Ladies' petticoats." ("As if me

he might better stare at this new foe in the f

ut for?" he d

k's face. "Why-er-the Union Underskirt an

w 'em all. You're starting in young, ain't you, kid! Well, it'll

nct prompted Jock McChesney to shake his head, ever so slightly, and assume a blankness of expression. And Emma McChe

grinned Fat Ed Meyers. "

d a nice little bill to Watkins down the Street." She seated

ng to put you wise to something, seeing you're new to this game. See th

she?" said Jock

who sh

does look fa

Buck's Featherloom Petticoats. I'll give her her dues; she's the best little salesman on the road. I'll bet that girl could sell a ruffled,

to look cherubically benign he might have seen a quick and painful scarlet sweep th

ourtesy to let the lady have the first look-in. See? It ain't so often that three people in the same line get together like this. She knows it, and she's sitting on the edge of her chair, waiting to bolt when that door opens, even if she does act like she was hanging on the words of that lady clerk there. The minute it does open a crack

u," answe

When a woman breaks into a man's game like this, let

something,"

my feet, and when I see an order getting away from me I can be so fleet that I have Diana looking like old Weston doing a stretch of muddy country road in a coast to coast hike. See?

d to place himself in Ed Meyers' path, then reddened, began an apology, stepped on both of Ed's feet, jabbed his elbow into his stomach,

eramental hands. At this moment, despite his purpling face, and his staring eyes, they were the most noticeable t

hey popped like corn kernels in the heat of his w

ox-footed truck horse. Come on out of here and I'll lick the shine off your shoes, you blue-eye

re joy Jock McChes

denly Jock stopped eating. His eyes were on the door. "There's that fath

t man. His pink, full-jowled face was glowing. His eyes were bright as

n deal you've handed me. I haven't forgotten that trick you turned with

s head in Jock's direct

e, and I'll lick the shine off your

ad found themselves occupying the same room for a night they wouldn't have got to the kimono and back hair stage before they would not only have known each other's name, but they'd have tried on each other's hats, swapped corset cover patterns, found mutual friends living in Dayton, Ohio, ta

erything but his name this morning. I wish I had thro

this morning just to show his mother that he can be a help to his folks if he wants to. Now, Ed Meyers, if you're going to have apo