"Yes," he said, "can I do anything for you?"
"Well, since you have mentioned it, you can," I answered.
I introduced myself, told my new friend—Mason was his name, Billie Mason—how I was fixed and that I would give him a note to my customer, McPherson, at Walla Walla, requesting him to pay back the money.
I gave Mason the order, written with a lead pencil on the back of an envelope, and he gave me the four dollars.
I got down to Walla Walla in a few days. When I went in to see McPherson the first thing I said to him, handing him four dollars, was: "Mac, I want to pay you back that four."
"What four?" said McPherson.
"What four?" said I. "Your memory must be short. Why, that four I gave a traveling man, named Mason, an order on you for!"
McPherson looked blank; but we happened to be standing near the cashier's desk, and the matter was soon cleared up.
The cashier, who was a new man in the store, spoke up and said: "Yes, last week a fellow was in here with an order on you for four dollars, but it was written with a lead pencil on the back of an envelope. I thought it was no good. I didn't want to be out the four, so I refused to pay it."
"The deuce you did," said my friend Mac, "Why, I've known this man (referring to me) and bought goods of him for ten years."