“He must have been pretty well educated to use as many different languages as that.”
“Oh, well, probably it wasn’t quite a thousand,” laughed Walter. “But the air was full of owskis and oskis there for about five minutes.”
“What did Sin do?”
“He went up to the beggar, sober as a judge, and begged his pardon. He told him how deeply he regretted the ‘accident’ and then said, ‘I feel worse about it because you are deaf and dumb. How long have you had this trouble?’
“‘More as dree year,’ muttered the fellow, caught off his guard. You ought to have heard the fellows yell.”
“What did the deaf-and-dumb man do?”
“Started for some vast wilderness, I guess. We heard about him afterward, though. He got on a street-car in the city the next day and he still had his big card placard on, ‘Please help a poor man who is deaf and dumb.’ There were some good people on the car and one of them suggested that they chip in and help the fellow. This man was a minister and he said it was a great pity that one who was so young should suffer from such a terrible affliction. The deaf-mute kept mum, pretending that he didn’t hear any of the talk, but just before they turned the money over to him a big fat man got on the car and when it started it threw him against the beggar and he brought one of his big feet down hard on the mute’s left foot. ‘Ouch!’ yelled the beggar. ‘You old fat porcupine; can’t you look where you’re going?’”
“What happened to the poor fellow then?” inquired Dan with a smile.
“Oh, the good people hurried him off to the police court. Sin said he would have walked a thousand miles just to see the fellow when he was brought up before the magistrate.”