"Well,
well! Ain't that queer now? I'd much sooner 'a' put you down as a
gentleman who wouldn't want to get into no dirt or clutter."
"You don't know me."
"Evidently not," the old man rejoined. "Well, you can have your wish
fur's carpenterin' goes. You can putter round here much as you like."
Mr. Snelling moved toward the long workbench.
"This is a neat thing," remarked he, regarding the unfinished invention
quite as if he had never heard of it before. "What are you doing here?"
A glow of satisfaction spread over the little fellow's kindly face.
"Why, me an' Bob," he explained, "are tinkerin' with a notion I got
into my head a while ago. The idee kitched me in the night, an' I come
downstairs an' commenced tacklin' it right away. But I didn't see my
course ahead, an' 'twarn't 'til Bob hove in sight an' lent a helpin'
hand that the contraption begun to take shape. But for him 'twould
never have amounted to a darn thing, I reckon. I ain't much on the
puttin' together, anyhow, an' this was such a whale of a scheme it had
me floored.
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