A few days later the worthy cleric was passing along the road which led to the links, when he met an individual whose clothes stuck out all over, with great, knobby lumps. “Gracious me, Mr. Bagshawe!” he cried, as the object approached nearer, “is that really you?” “Yes, it’s me,” grunted the voice of the deacon. “Why, you don’t mean—surely all those are not the result of my suggestion?” continued the horrified parson, gazing at the telltale bulges. “These!” snorted the other contemptuously; “why, these are only the ‘dash its.’ The others are coming along on a wheel-barrow.” * * * * * ------------------------------------------------------------------------ When I was out West I saw two miners playing cards in a place called Toughnut Cafe. They finally found their amusement rather a dull one, for neither could overreach the other. At last one of the precious pair pushed his chair back, arose, and said: “I’m tired of this; let’s have a change—I’ll jest bet yer a even thousand that I kin take them keerds and cut the jack o’ hearts the very fust time.” “I’ll take yer,” replied the other, a very quiet fellow. Stakes were deposited with an onlooker, and a pack of cards was produced and laid on the table between the gamblers. The layer of the bet thereupon drew his bowie-knife and neatly sliced the cards in two from top to bottom. “Thar,” said he, “I cut the jack o’ hearts the fust time, mister, an’ I reckon I’ll freeze on to that thar cash. Fork her over, mister. The agreement was that I were to cut the jack the fust time, an’ I done it. I cut it, didn’t I?” “Wal, no,” said the other, “I rayther think not, for th’ jack were not there. Yer see, stranger, I thought it wiser, under the circumstances, to take the precaution of placing that there card up my sleeve!” * * * * * Jap Johnson told me that! The greatest man to jump into a town and get acquainted with folks I ever saw, Jap was. Give Jap a night and a day in a country place and everybody there would call him by his first name, and he’d call everybody the same way, even the girls. In forty-eight hours he’d know every man, woman, child, horse, dog and cat in the town, and could tell who married who, who got drunk once in a while, and who had fits or rheumatics. Give him three days in a town and he’d have every bit of the gossip and old, musty scandals that ever went over the back fences of that town. He was a wonderful man, Jap was, and he could sell goods like a house afire.