Cheese would be sold right over my head by I know not who.

I should be ordered out to work on the road like a dog by Ury jest as like as not.

I've been a-settin' here and turnin' it over in my mind; and though, as you say, I hain't always favored the idee of writin', still at the present time I believe We'd better write the book.

There's ink in the house, hain't there ?" sez he anxiously.
"Yes," sez I.
"And paper ?" sez he.
Agin I sez, "Yes." "Wall, then, when there's ink and paper, what's to hender Our writin' it ?" "Our!" "We!" Agin them words entered my soul like lead arrows and gaulded me, but agin I looked up, and the clear light of affection that shone from my pardner's eyes melted them arrows, and I suffered and wuz calm.

But anon I sez-- "Don't great emotions rise up in your soul, Josiah Allen, when you think of Columbus and the World's work?
Don't the mighty waves of the past and the future dash up aginst your heart when you think of Christopher, and what he found, and what is behind this nation, and what is in front of it, a-bagonin' it onwards ?" "No," sez he calmly; "I look at it with the eye of a business man, and with that eye," sez he, "I say less write the book." He ceased his remarks, and agin silence rained in the room.
But to me the silence wuz filled with voices that he couldn't hear--deep, prophetic voices that shook my soul.