76 BRET HARTE'S CHOICE BITS,
I instantly pointed out this fact, and charged
him with the deception. To my surprise, he took
it quietly, and even a little complacently,
" Bedad, yer roight; ye see, sur" (confidentially),
" ye see, sur, until I get worruk—and its worruk
I'm lukin' for—I have to desave now and thin to
shute the locality, Ah, God save us ! but on the
say-coast thay'r that har-rud upon thim that don't
belong to the say."
I ventured to suggest that a strong, healthy man
like him might have found work somewhere be¬
tween Milwaukee and Boston.
" Ah, but ye see I got free passage on a freight
train, and didn't shtop. It was in the Aist that I
expected to find worruk."
" Have you any trade ? "
" Trade, is it ? I'm a brickmaker, God knows,
and many's the lift I've had at makin' bricks in
Milwaukee. Shure I've as aisy a hand at it as any
man. Maybe yer honour might know of a kil,
hereabout ? "
Now to my certain knowledge, there was not a
brick kiln within fifty miles of that spot, and of all
unlikely places to find one would have been this
sandy peninsula, given up to the summer residences
of a few wealthy people. Yet I could not help ad¬
miring the assumption of the scamp, who knew
this fact as well as myself. But I said, " I can give
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