"Well, you see, an Irishman isn't a yeller heathen."
Dewey laughed.
"He may be a heathen, though not a yellow one," he said.
"Well, Dewey, what answer shall I take back to the boys?"
"You can say that I never intended to employ the Chinaman for any length of time; but I shall not send him off till I get ready."
"I'm afraid the boys won't like it, Dewey."
"Probably O'Reilly won't. As for you, you are too intelligent a man to be influenced by such a man as he."
All men are sensible to flattery, and Hodgson was won over by this politic speech.
"I won't say you're altogether wrong, Dewey," he said; "but I wouldn't keep him too long."
"I don't mean to."