One fragment that
reached us, I preserved.
"An' I sez to the doctor when he come, sez I, 'Doctor, I ain't held a
bite on my stummick these three livelong days!'" This was delivered by
a buxom dame, fanning vigorously the meanwhile, and was noteworthy
since the lady was closely followed by a little man whose frailty
suggested dissolution, and who bore a large lunch box under one arm and
a heavy child upon the other.
The men appeared somewhat interested in the pampered nervous-looking
thoroughbreds, but made few comments. As compared to their women folk
they seemed more silent than the very tomb itself.
Long after the grangers had drifted out of our sight, Blister's
thoughts seemed devoted to them. Several times he chuckled to himself.
"Every time I see a bunch of rubes," he said at last, "it puts me in
mind of Butsy Trimble 'n' the new stalls at Lake Minnehaha Park."
"Lake Minnehaha Park," I repeated. "I never heard of such a place."
"It's up at Mount Clinton," Blister explained. "It's Ohio's beauty
spot."
"Get out!" I scoffed.
"Fact!" said Blister. "It says so right over the gates."
"Tell me about it," I demanded.
"This ain't been so long ago," said Blister. "The meetin' here at
Latonia is about over. Ole Whiskers has put the game on the fritz in
New York, so everybody's studyin' where to ship when get-away day
comes, 'n' the whole bunch is sore as bears--you can't get a pleasant
word from nobody.
"All I got in my string is some two-year-olds of Judge Dillon's.
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