"Add that I hope to get there too, and will make every effort to do so." He wrote it out, sighing as he did so.

Then, by careful cutting, he got it down to fourteen words.

By that time the operator couldn't read it, so he wrote it out again--gloomily.
This accomplished, we matched coins to see who should pay for the message.

He lost.
"All right!" he said.

"I'll pay for it, but it's all foolishness to send such a long telegram." "No," I returned, as we left the office and got into the machine, "it is not foolishness.