Humorous stories; Washington (State) -- Fiction; Western stories
His shoes had to be in a row, and his clothes and hats and caps had to
be in a row, and there was only one hook in the room his pyjamas could
lawfully hang on, and his talcum powder had to stand exactly between
the mosquito dope and the bay rum, which had to be flanked precisely by
his manicure tools and succeeded by something he put on his hair, which
was going the way of all flesh. If some marauder had entered his room in
the night and moved his compass over to where his fountain pen belonged
he would of woke up instantly and screamed.
And then his new wardrobe trunk! This was a great and holy joy that
had come into his bleak life; all new and shiny and complicated, with
a beautiful brass lock, one side for clothes on correct hangers and the
other side full of drawers and compartments and secret recesses, where
he could hide things from himself. It was like a furnished flat, that
trunk. And this was his first adventure out in the great cruel world
with it. He cherished it as a man had ought to cherish his bride.
He had me in to gaze upon it that first afternoon. You'd of thought he
was trying to sell it to me, the way he showed it off. It stood on end,
having a bulge like a watermelon in the top, so no vandal could stand
it up wrong; and it was wide open to show the two insides. He opened up
every room in it, so I could marvel at 'em. He fawned on that trunk. And
at the last he showed me a little brass hook he had screwed into the
side where the clothes hangers was. It was a very important hook. He hung
the keys of the trunk on it; two keys, strung on a cord, and the cord
neatly on the hook. This, he told me, was so the keys would never
get lost.
"I always have a dread I may lose those keys," says he. "That would be a
catastrophe indeed, would it not? So I plan to keep them on that hook;
then I shall always know where they are."
The crafty wretch! He could wake up in the night and put his hand on
those keys in the dark. Probably he often done so. I spoke a few simple
words of praise for his sagacity. And after this interesting lecture on
his trunk and its keys, and a good look at the accurate layout of his one
million belongings, I had his number. He was the oldest living boy scout.
And this poor girl with the designful eyes on him was the oldest
living debutante. I learned afterward that the great aim of science
is classification. I had these two classified in no time, like I'd
been pottering away at science all my life. Why, say, this Oswald
person even carried a patent cigar lighter that worked! You must of seen
hundreds of them nickel things that men pay money for. They work fine in
the store where you buy 'em. But did you ever see one work after the man
got it outside, where he needed it? The owner of one always takes it out,
looking strained and nervous, and presses the spring; and nothing happens
except that he swears and borrows a match. But Oswald's worked every
time. It was uncanny! Only a boy scout could of done it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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