“I will, gentle youth. I am looking for fun; and if something happens, so much the better.”
“Do you want to go anywheres?”
“I want to go everywhere. I’d like to be on the ocean, running a liner; I’d like to be a cowboy, dodging Indians; I’d like to be a soldier in the trenches, and a sailor in a submarine. In fact, I’d like to be everywhere at the same time.”
“You can’t do that, you boob,” said Abe with strong disfavor on his rugged face.
“I am one of those fellows,” continued Clarence, “who wants to eat his cake and have it.”
“Oh, jiminy!” roared Abe, breaking into a loud laugh, “you want to eat your cake and you want to have it at the same time?”
“That’s it exactly. I want to eat my cake, and at the same time have it.”
“Oh, jiminy! Why, do you know what you are?” asked Abe laughing with conscious superiority.
“Won’t you please tell me?”
“Why, you are an idiot, a plumb-born idiot.”