Mr. Sanders smiled benignly. "Old Jonas has been seed an' he's been saw'd," said the elder man so drolly that Somers laughed outright. "I reckon you've been to college, ain't you? I 'lowed as much. The trainin' is all right, but you'll have to fergit a heap you've l'arned ef you want travellin' for to be easy. Old as I am, I wish I had some of your knowledge, but if you was to put it all in a hamper basket an' gi' me the right to paw it over, you'd be surprised at what I'd pick out. My experience is that when a feller gits through college, an' begins for to face the hard propositions that he ain't never thought about, he allers takes a notion that somethin's wrong somewhar. "I reckon maybe you've got the idee that argyment, ef it's got all the facts behind it, is the thing that's bound for to win, an' you'll have to git bumped by a barnyard full of billy-goats before you find out that nineteen-hundred squar' miles on 'em ain't wuth one little inch of persuasion. It's all right in the books, whar they l'arn you how to think an' put up a nice article of argyment, but it don't work in reel life. You can't carry none of your p'ints wi'out doin' some mighty purty dancin' on t'other side of the line. Now I've saved you from one of the wust bumpin's that a young feller ever had, and the beauty about it is you'll never have a suspicion of it ontel you're old enough for to have grandchildren. It'll not hurt you for to hit some of the rough places as you go slidin' through this vale of tears, but it'll never do you any reel good for to climb four flights of sta'rs an' then jump out'n the top window when you want to come down." "I should think that even a fool would know that," the young man declared. "Well, some on 'em don't," responded Mr. Sanders. "Thar's diffunt kinds of fools, an' diffunt kinds of houses, an' heap higher jumps, an' you'd 'a' had the experience of it ef you'd 'a' found old Jonas at home. The next time you go thar don't ax for him. Call for Adelaide--call for Lucindy the cook (she use' to belong to your Gran'daddy Bowden)--call for Randall--call for any an' ever'body but old Jonas." "But what am I to do?" the young man inquired somewhat impatiently. "It seems that I may as well go back to Malvern or Atlanta; and when I do that, I'll have to hunt for another job." Mr. Sanders hummed a tune, and apparently paid no attention to the young man's last remark. "Old Jonas is mighty quar'," he said after a pause. "When his sister died up thar in Atlanta, you couldn't 'a' told from the motions he made that he'd hearn the mournful news; but sence he's had for to take keer of Adelaide, her daughter, his gizzard has kinder softened up. Why, that man thinks that the sun rises an' sets whar Adelaide lives at." "Well," said the young fellow, "she certainly is charming; I don't think I ever met a young lady that so impressed me."