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pestered him to death by comin’ up and speakin’ to him. We ain’t had to dodge nobody or hide behind a coconut tree to remain exclusive. He says Palm Beach was too common for him. What he should of said was that it was too lonesome. If they was just one white man here that’d listen to my stuff I wouldn’t have no kick. But it ain’t no pleasure tellin’ stories to the Ephs. They laugh whether it’s good or not, and then want a dime for laughin’.

“As for our clo’es,” I says, “they would be all right for a couple o’ days’ stay. But the dames round here, and the men, too, has somethin’ different to put on for every mornin’, afternoon and night. You’ve wore your two evenin’ gowns so much that I just have to snap my finger at the hooks and they go and grab the right eyes.

“The meals would be grand,” I says, “if the cook didn’t keep gettin’ mixed up and puttin’ puddin’ sauce on the meat and gravy on the pie.

“I’m glad we’ve been to Palm Beach,” I says. “I wouldn’t of missed it for nothin’. But the ocean won’t be no different tomorrow than it was yesterday, and the same for the daily program. It don’t even rain here, to give us a little variety.

“Now what do you say,” I says, “to us just settlin’ this bill, and whatever we owe since then, and beatin’ it out o’ here just as fast as we can go?”

The Missus didn’t say nothin’ for a w’ile. She was too busy cryin’. She knowed that what I’d said was the truth, but she wouldn’t give up without a struggle.

“Just three more days,” she says finally. “If we don’t meet somebody worth meetin’ in the next three days I’ll go wherever you want to take me.”

“All right,” I says; “three more days it is. What’s a little matter o’ sixty dollars?”