CHAPTER XXV.
Two or three days after Christmas John was sitting in his room in the evening when there came a knock at the door, and to his "Come in" there entered Mr.Harum, who was warmly welcomed and entreated to take the big chair, which, after a cursory survey of the apartment and its furnishings, he did, saying, "Wa'al, I thought I'd come in an' see how Polly'd got you fixed; whether the baskit [casket ?] was worthy of the jew'l, as I heard a feller say in a theater once." "I was never more comfortable in my life," said John.

"Mrs.Bixbee has been kindness itself, and even permits me to smoke in the room.

Let me give you a cigar." "Heh! You got putty well 'round Polly, I reckon," said David, looking around the room as he lighted the cigar, "an' I'm glad you're comf'table--I reckon 't is a shade better 'n the Eagle," he remarked, with his characteristic chuckle.
"I should say so," said John emphatically, "and I am more obliged than I can tell you." "All Polly's doin's," asserted David, holding the end of his cigar critically under his nose.

"That's a trifle better article 'n I'm in the habit of smokin'," he remarked.
"I think it's my one extravagance," said John semi-apologetically, "but I don't smoke them exclusively.

I am very fond of good tobacco, and--" "I understand," said David, "an' if I had my life to live over agin, knowin' what I do now, I'd do diff'rent in a number o' ways.