“You do how do you know the man sat down in your chair and rocked back and forth?”
“That is the simplest matter of all. I suppose that living as I do I become more or less a crank. One of my notions is never to leave the house without seeing that the left rocker of my chair is exactly over and in a line with that crack in the floor. Notice now and you will see that it rests diagonally across the crack. Do you ask anything plainer than that?”
It was Bobby Rice who made the natural remark:
“I don’t see why a rocking chair should shift about.”
“Arrah now, have ye no sinse?” asked Mike Murphy reprovingly; “Uncle Elk didn’t say why a rocking chair kicks up its heels, but ye ought to know that the craturs always do so without giving any raison or excuse. Haven’t I tried to use me mither’s chair at home wid the result that it always hitches through the dure whin I’m not thinking and gives me a back somersault? Ye surprise me by your stupidity, as Jim Hooligan said whin his taycher remarked he could not see what plisure a lad found in fighting two ither lads.”
“Why were you so quick to say your visitor is a man in good circumstances?” asked Scout Master Hall.
“Because he smokes fifteen-cent cigars. Most campers out are fond of the brier-wood pipe, but when they use cigars they don’t buy expensive ones unless they can afford it, and not always then.”
“What fact gives you so much confidence in their quality?”
“I know the brand, for I have smoked them myself; I caught the fragrance the moment I opened the door; the silken ashes which he flipped off in the fireplace is another proof if you wish it. Michael, are you satisfied?”
“I couldn’t do better mesilf, but ye haven’t completed yer rivelations.”