“Well, if it ain’t Hustler Joe!” exclaimed the hunchback delightedly. “You’re a sight good fur sore eyes. Come back ter stay?”
“Well, awhile, maybe. How’s the world using you these days, Jim?”
“Oh, fair—fair; ’tain’t quite ’s good as I’d like—but I ain’t complainin’.”
“I wonder if anything would make you complain—I never heard you,” remarked Joe, helping himself to a seat on the counter.
“Well, now that ye mention it, mebbe I don’t much—I hain’t no need to. My appetite’s good an’ my conscience is clear; an’ a clear conscience is——”
“Jim,” interrupted the miner sharply, “did you ever hear of Aladdin and his lamp?”
“Huh? Oh, the feller that rubbed it an’ got what he wanted?”
“That’s the chap.”
“Well—s’posin’ I have?”