It was hard to suspect that the clean-cut, energetic and rapid-fire talker was a tramp, but when he produced credentials from one end of the country to the other, and promised and threatened to produce them from Brazil, Hungary, New Zealand and the Klondike regions to prove his statement, it had to be credited. "I'm A No. 1, the well-known hobo, tramp, author and traveler," he said, in a speed of diction that would have made the late lamented Pete Daily or Junie McCree green with envy. "Everywhere you've seen the marks 'A. No. 1,' on railroad fences, in railroad yards, or anywhere else, and you must have seen them if you've been over this country much; you'll know I've been there." HOBO LOOKS LIKE BUSINESS MAN. A No. 1 had uttered this sentence in almost one breath, and was proceeding with such rapidity that it was impossible to follow his flow of ideas. He was a medium-sized but lithe and powerfully built man, attired in a neat tailor-made brown suit, with highly polished shoes, and looking something like a prosperous business man in a small way. Under his arm he carried a pair of blue overalls, and as he laid them on the table he remarked: "My traveling rig." [Illustration: "Say, Jack, have some more nice hot coffee." "Gee, Bill, I was jus' thinkin' o' that myself. Talk about great minds--" "Come on, Jack, be game. Please have some more o' this nice turkey." "Turkey! Great Scott! When have I heard that word before? Hain't it a country out in Asia some place?" "No. Jack, turkey is vittles. You get it if you love your teacher. Better let me give you a few nice slivers off the breast." "Say, Bill, on the dead, you're sure generous, all right, all right. Here you are, sharin' your last turkey." "Old man, don't you know it's Thanksgivin' day? Don't you hear the bells ringin'? Do you reckon I'd dine alone on a day like this? No, siree, not much. Pass your plate fer some more o' this nice hot turkey, and some nice hot scolloped oysters, an' some o' these nice hot biscuits, an' some nice cranberry sauce, an'--" "There you go. Bill, robbin' yourself. You won't have any left." "O, there's plenty here. I like to see a man eat till he's plum foundered.... When I used to go home fer Thanksgivin' mother wasn't happy unless I et enough to stall a hired hand. If I didn't eat four helpin's of everything she thought I didn't like her cookin'. Had to try ever'thing--choc'late cake, turkey, sage dressin', hot gravy, mince pie, an'--" "Say. Bill, you might gimme a piece o' that mince pie while you're about it. I got a nice, cozy little place fer a piece o' mince pie." "Sure, Jack. I'll give you a whole quarter section. How do you like this celery? Awful hard to get good celery these days." "Yep, celery and servants. One's hard to get an' the other's hard to keep." "Say, Jack." "What?" "Shall we have our cigars and coffee here or in th' drawin' room?" "O, let's have James bring 'em in th' drawin' room."]