"'I am going to lecture to-night at C——,' said a pompous man.
"'I am glad of it,' was the quick answer. 'I have hated the people there for years. No punishment is too severe for them.'
"'I am particular who I drink with,' said a man curtly to another.
"'Yes?' was the answer. 'I outgrew that foolish pride long ago. I would as soon you would drink with me as not.'
"'I do not require lecturing from you,' said a man. 'I am no reformed drunkard.'
"'Then why do you not reform?' was the response.
"This coast is full of the echoes of such things."
The Professor spoke next. "I think," said he, "that there is more extravagance in figures of speech on this coast than in any other country. Marcus Shults had a difficulty in Eureka the other day, when I was there. He told me about it. Said he: 'I told him to keep away; that I was afraid of him. I wanted some good man to hear me say that, but I had my eye on him every minute, and had he come a step nearer, why—when the doctors would have been called in to dissect him they would have thought they had struck a new lead mine.'"
Here Wright interrupted the Professor. "Marcus was from my State, Professor. Did you ever hear him explain why he did not become a fighter?"
The Professor answered that he never had, when Wright continued: