I saw they was
starting for me, so I just slung in a 'Thank you something awful, boss,'
and ducked through and between, and cut for life; 'cause if they'd a-got
me, I might a-been there yet. They are the _nicest_ men on earth, but they
get a little keyed up sometimes, and a kid like me couldn't keep even. Now
that's all there is to it, Lily, honest, cross my heart! I _didn't_ know
they would put it there. I didn't know they thought it was _good_ enough.
I wouldn't a-let them for the life of them, if I'd _known_ they was going
to."
"You jus' said it once, Mickey?" inquired Peaches.
"Jus' once, Flowersy-girl, fast as I could rattle."
"It's twice as long as mine ever are," she said. "I don't see how they
'membered."
"Oh that!" cried Mickey. "Why honey, that's easy! Those fellows jump on to
a thing like chained lightning, and they got a way of writing that is just
a lot of little twists and curls, but one means a whole sentence--they
call it 'shorthand'--and doing that way, they can set down talk as fast as
anybody can speak, and there were a dozen of them there with pencils and
paper in their fingers.
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