6o BRET harts'® CHOICE BITS.
"A few words, John, ez between man and man,
ez between my daughter's father and her husband
who expects to be, is about the thing, I take it, as
is fair and square. I kem here to say them
They're about Jinny, my gal."
Ashe's grave face brightened, to Mr. Mc Closky's
evident discomposure.
" Maybe, I should have said about her mother-
but the same bein' a stranger to you, I says naterally,
'Jinny.'"
Ashe nodded courteously. Mr. Mc Closky with
his eyes on his valise, went on:—
" It is sixteen year ago as I married Mrs. McClosky
in the State of Missouri. She let on, at the time,
to be a widder,—a widder with one child. When I
say let on, I mean to imply that I subsekently found
out that she was not a widder, nor a wife; and the
father of the child was, so to speak, onbeknownst.
That child was Jinny—my gal."
With his eyes on his valise, and quietly ignoring
the wholly crimsoned face and swiftly darkening
brow of his host, he continued :—
" Many little things sorter tended to make our
home in Missouri onpleasant. A disposition to
smash furniture and heave knives around; an
inclination to howl when drunk, and that frequent;
a habitooal use of vulgar language, and a tendency
to cuss the casooal visitor,—seemed to pint," added
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