E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland,
Project Gutenberg Beginners Projects,
Taavi Kalju, Leonard Johnson,
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MIKE FLANNERY
On Duty and Off
BY
ELLIS PARKER BUTLER
Illustrations by Gustavus C. Widney
New York Doubleday, Page & Company
MCMIX
CONTENTS
I. JUST LIKE A CAT
II. THE THREE HUNDRED
III. FLEAS WILL BE FLEAS
ILLUSTRATIONS
"'Pho-e-nix!' Is it a man's name, I dunno?"
"''Tis well enough t' say kape it, but cats like thim does not kape very well'"
"'I will tell you what it is,' said Mr. Gratz"
"Her pencil was delicately poised above the ruled page"
I
JUST LIKE A CAT
They were doing good work out back of the Westcote express office. The Westcote Land and Improvement Company was ripping the whole top off Seiler's Hill and dumping it into the swampy meadow, and Mike Flannery liked to sit at the back door of the express office, when there was nothing to do, and watch the endless string of waggons dump the soft clay and sand there. Already the swamp was a vast landscape of small hills and valleys of new, soft soil, and soon it would burst into streets and dwellings. That would mean more work, but Flannery did not care; the company had allowed him a helper already, and Flannery had hopes that by the time the swamp was populated Timmy would be of some use. He doubted it, but he had hopes.
The four-thirty-two train had just pulled in, and Timmy had gone across to meet it with his hand-truck, and now he returned. He came lazily, pulling the cart behind him with one hand. He didn't seem to care whether he ever got back to the office. Flannery's quick blood rebelled.
"Is that all th' faster ye can go?" he shouted. "Make haste! Make haste