“Better wait up until night-time, buddy,” he explained. “An ounce of prevention’s always a heap better than a pound of cure, you remember. We can slip away a lot easier in the night, as we’ve proven more than a few times in the past. Then besides, we’d like to profit by the latest weather report. If a wide storm threatened it would be good policy to hold back even for several days, rather than get caught in a hard blow; such things are said to be doubly tough amidst the mountain gorges and canyons, with their cranky air currents, and a continual danger of running smack into some high peak.”
“I leaves all that figgerin’ to yeou, as usual, partner; when yeou gives the word, that’s goin’ to be the right time for us to climb, an’ not afore. Golly! but I’m as hungry as seven wolves all in one—hopes as haow they got steak an’ fried onions on the bill o’ fare tonight, ’cause my innards air jest a yellin’ fur a mess o’ my fav’rite chow.”
“I can’t say I’m in the same box, because being shut up for hours, and badgering my poor brain with a hundred puzzling questions, isn’t calculated to make a man ferociously hungry. You had outdoor exercise, and in consequence have built up a glorious appetite. Queer what some fellows will do so as to cater to their thirst or hunger.”
“Naow whatever kin yeou mean by that same remark, Jack, ole boy?”
They were on their way along the street at the time, keeping step as they headed for the restaurant. Jack seemed agreeable so far as explaining, for there was a little yarn back of his words, just as the astute Perk had suspected, knowing his chum as well as he did.
“This story was told to me long years ago, but I never think of it that I don’t get a fresh laugh,” Jack was saying, chuckling as he spoke. “It seems a couple of artists who were fond of trout fishing were up in Maine, stopping at a small hotel, while waiting for their guides to show up.
“They noticed at breakfast several mornings that another party, small and dried up, but a fisherman to the tips of his fingers nevertheless, always ordered salt mackerel for his morning meal. This aroused their curiosity, so one day, after having a good confab with him on the prospect of sport ahead on the trip they had planned to take, one of the pair had the audacity to refer to the singular liking for such a dish evinced by the other. He grinned and looked wise, as he went on to say in reply, not taking the least offense over the matter as a personal one:
“‘Oh! I aint carin’ so much for the fish, gents, an’ gets fed up on the same sometimes; but let me tell you, folks ’long ’bout ten o’clock every mornin’ there comes the most delicious thirst that pays up for my eating them salt fish.’ Think of him punishing himself so regularly, just to create a tremendous yearning for his favorite tipple.”
Perk saw the point, and of course laughed quite vigorously.
“Hot-diggetty-dig! boy, hope I aint jest as bad as that same gent,” he presently gurgled. “I c’n understand heow he felt though, an’ she don’t seem so derned queer to me after all.”