Then all together demanded: “Well, how much did he weigh?”
“Dunno. Hain’t weighed him yet.”
Other men kept dropping in and hugging the stove, for the day was cold and snowy outside. In came Cy Hopkins, wrapped in a big overcoat, yet almost frozen to death; but there wasn’t room enough around that stove to warm his little finger.
But he didn’t get mad about it; he just said to Bill Stebbins who kept the store: “Bill, got any raw oysters?”
“Yes, Cy.”
“Well, just open a dozen and feed ’em to my hoss.”
Well, Stebbins never was scared by an order from a man whose credit was good, as Cy’s was, so he opened the oysters an’ took them out, an’ the whole crowd followed to see a horse eat oysters. Then Cy picked out the best seat near the stove and dropped into it as if he had come to stay, as he had.
Pretty soon the crowd came back, and the storekeeper said: “Why, Cy, your hoss won’t eat them oysters.”
“Won’t he? Well, then, bring ’em here an’ I’ll eat ’em myself.”
When Charley Evans and Bill Hoey traveled together, they had no end of good-natured banter between them.