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168 LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. —a eee nt earls, markises ‘ll do, or dooks — though 4e never made mention of any dooks or markises. We did go over coronets a little, but I never happened to see any. I guess they dont keep em round here.” “Tiffany d have ‘em if anybody did,” said Dick, "but I don’t know as Í d know one if Í saw it.” Mr. Hobbs did not explain that he would not have known one if he saw it. He merely shook his head ponderously. ‘‘T spose there is very little call for em, he said, and that ended the matter. This was the beginning of quite a substantial friendship. When Dick went up to the store, Mr. Hobbs received him with great hospitality. He gave him a chair tilted against the door, near a barrel of apples, and after his young visitor was seated, he made a jerk at them with the hand in which he held his pipe, saying: Help. verselt." Then he looked at the story papers, and after that they read and discussed the British aristocracy; and Mr. Hobbs smoked his pipe very hard and shook his head a great deal. He shook it most when he pointed out the high stool with the marks on its legs. . ‘‘There s his very kicks,” he said impressively; ‘his very kicks. I sit and look at em by the hour. This is a world of ups an it’s a world of downs. Why, he d set there, an’ eat crackers out of a box, an’ apples out of a barrel, an’ pitch his cores into the street; an’ now he s a lord a-livin’ in a castle. Them ’s a lord’s kicks; they ‘ll be a earl’s kicks some day. Sometimes I says to myself, says I, ‘ Well, I Il be jiggered!’” He seemed to derive a great deal of comfort from his reflections and Dick’s visit. Before Dick went home, they had a supper in the small back-room; they had crackers and cheese and _ sardines, and other canned things out of the store, and Mr. Hobbs solemnly
