The old man, amazed, glared at those prunes for a moment and, growing red in the face with rage, picked up the dish, went out to the kitchen and cussed the cook for a week. This landlord was a widower and had a very handsome daughter, whom he treated shamefully. He forced her to work early and late, wait on the table, do chamber work, help in the laundry, etc. He would not allow her to wear anything better than a common gingham dress, nor could she go anywhere nor get acquainted with anybody. She wanted an enlarged picture of her dead mother, and when she asked her father for permission to order it, instead of consenting he slapped her in the face. All this in the presence of Aleck, who happened to be there at the time. Aleck immediately left the house, but when he returned the next day it was to present the girl with a large crayon portrait of her mother, the picture being enclosed in a handsome frame. The two met in the parlor every evening after that, the old man being apparently oblivious of what was going on, and the upshot of it all was that on the following Sunday night they eloped to a neighboring town and were married. Aleck went back to his father’s gallery, and is there today with his wife. The old landlord did not try to make trouble for them, but turned all his wrath on me. He swore I was to blame for the whole thing, threatened to shoot me, to have me arrested, and everything else. I denied, point blank, having had anything to do with the affair; but I do not mind now acknowledging that Aleck did consult me, that I advised him to make the run, and loaned him an extra twenty dollars to get away with. [Illustration] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CHAPTER XIII. WORKING THE SALOON KEEPER FOR AN EXTRA FIVE—ALONE AGAIN—ARRESTED—FIGHTING THE LICENSE—SICK—THE INSURANCE SCHEME—THE WHEEL AND CIGAR DODGE—THE STAGE HOLD-UP—THE HORSE DOCTOR AND CHOLERA—CIGARS TWO FOR A NICKEL—MAKING A PREACHER SWEAR. Things went along apparently prosperous for some months, until the time to form engagements for the fall and winter came around, when my best people asked for a raise in salary. At first I was inclined to grant it, for I liked the business, and, on the face of things, I ought to make a fortune. But the briefest reflection told me that I would be entering on a new campaign, and like a wise and noble general I ought to sit down and figure out the cost. After that, though it took time, it was not hard to come to a conclusion. I had been doing a thriving business, but I had the field all to myself, with very little opposition from regular exhibitions. The season was coming when the people in the towns which I would care to work might have a surfeit of amusement. I discovered, also, that if my receipts had been large, so also had been my expenditures. I went on, figured out the profit, cost and loss and decided to quit right then.