“No, no!” he says real anxious. “No, Miss Riggs, please don’t desert me in this crisis.”
“Crisis?” I says.
“Yes,” says he. “You see, the Elks’ convention is coming to our national capital next week and the Spokesman has got to deliver a full hour’s speech to them and you just can’t imagine how I shall be put to it to invent something different to say. Only think of it I’ve got to work up some new compliment to pay to the Constitution! And every Fourth of July for a hundred and fifty years some twenty thousand orators have been warming up this old soup and putting in new flavors. Miss Riggs the great heart of the plain people has got to save me! You must tell me what to say—you and none other!”
So there I am up against it again and I wishing I could get home so as to see if a letter has come from Pop. “America,” I says, “is a great country.”
“Yes, I know,” he says, “but why? And how? What makes it that way? What—”
“Hold on,” I says, “one question at a time. It is very simple you get yourself mixed up by thinking too hard. Anybody can see that what makes America a great country is because there is so much of it. Ain’t that so?”
“Yes,” he says but kind of doubtful.
“And because there is so many people in it. Ain’t that so?”
“I suppose so,” he says but still like he didn’t.
“You take these here Elks that is coming to Washington,” I says. “Everybody knows the Elks is a great order and why? Because there is so many of them and they’ve got a pile of money and they come here and spend it and raise a hurrah and they own the town. Ain’t that so?”