I got to know several master mechanics,but about the most interesting fellow among them was the blacksmith,Dowley.He was a live man and a brisk talker,and had two journeymen and three apprentices,and was doing a raging business.In fact,he was getting rich,hand over fist,and was vastly respected.Marco was very proud of having such a man for a friend.He had taken me there ostensibly to let me see the big establishment which bought so much of his charcoal,but really to let me see what easy and almost familiar terms he was on with this great man.Dowley and I fraternized at once;I had had just such picked men,splendid fellows,under me in the Colt Arms Factory.I was bound to see more of him,so I invited him to come out to Marco's Sunday,and dine with us.Marco was appalled,and held his breath;and when the grandee accepted,he was so grateful that he almost forgot to be astonished at the condescension.
Marco's joy was exuberant --but only for a moment;then he grew thoughtful,then sad;and when he heard me tell Dowley I should have Dickon,the boss mason,and Smug,the boss wheelwright,out there,too,the coal-dust on his face turned to chalk,and he lost his grip.But I knew what was the matter with him;it was the expense.He saw ruin before him;he judged that his financial days were numbered.However,on our way to invite the others,I said:
"You must allow me to have these friends come;and you must also allow me to pay the costs."His face cleared,and he said with spirit:
"But not all of it,not all of it.Ye cannot well bear a burden like to this alone."I stopped him,and said:
"Now let's understand each other on the spot,old friend.I am only a farm bailiff,it is true;but I am not poor,nevertheless.I have been very fortunate this year --you would be astonished to know how I have thriven.I tell you the honest truth when I say I could squander away as many as a dozen feasts like this and never care THAT for the expense!"and I snapped my fingers.I could see myself rise a foot at a time in Marco's estimation,and when I fetched out those last words I was become a very tower for style and altitude."So you see,you must let me have my way.
You can't contribute a cent to this orgy,that's SETTLED.""It's grand and good of you --"
"No,it isn't.You've opened your house to Jones and me in the most generous way;Jones was remarking upon it to-day,just before you came back from the village;for although he wouldn't be likely to say such a thing to you --because Jones isn't a talker,and is diffident in society --he has a good heart and a grateful,and knows how to appreciate it when he is well treated;yes,you and your wife have been very hospitable toward us --""Ah,brother,'tis nothing --SUCH hospitality!""But it IS something;the best a man has,freely given,is always something,and is as good as a prince can do,and ranks right along beside it --for even a prince can but do his best.And so we'll shop around and get up this layout now,and don't you worry about the expense.I'm one of the worst spendthrifts that ever was born.Why,do you know,sometimes in a single week I spend --but never mind about that --you'd never believe it anyway."And so we went gadding along,dropping in here and there,pricing things,and gossiping with the shopkeepers about the riot,and now and then running across pathetic reminders of it,in the persons of shunned and tearful and houseless remnants of families whose homes had been taken from them and their parents butchered or hanged.The raiment of Marco and his wife was of coarse tow-linen and linsey-woolsey respectively,and resembled township maps,it being made up pretty exclusively of patches which had been added,township by township,in the course of five or six years,until hardly a hand's-breadth of the original garments was surviving and present.
Now I wanted to fit these people out with new suits,on account of that swell company,and I didn't know just how to get at it --with delicacy,until at last it struck me that as I had already been liberal in inventing wordy gratitude for the king,it would be just the thing to back it up with evidence of a substantial sort;so I said:
