"Nothing in the world like a bit o' good cider vinegar to keep off the festerin'.It may seem a trifle scratchy fer the moment, but it assassinates the blood-p'ison.There ye go! It's the fine thing fer ye, Joe--what are ye squirmin' about?""I'm only enjoying it," the boy answered, writhing as the vinegar worked into the gash."Don't you mind my laughing to myself.""Ye're a good one, Joe!" said the other, continuing his ministrations."I wisht, after all, ye felt like makin' me known to what's the trouble.
There's some of us would be glad to take it up fer ye, and--""No, no; it's all right.I was somewhere I had no business to be, and I got caught.""Who caught ye?""First, some nice white people"--Joe smiled his distorted smile--"and then a low-down black man helped me to get away as soon as he saw who it was.He's a friend of mine, and he fell down and tripped up the pursuit.""I always knew ye'd git into large trouble some day." The red-bearded man tore a strip from an old towel and began to bandage the boy's head with an accustomed hand."Yer taste fer excitement has been growin' on ye every minute of the four years I've known ye.""Excitement!" echoed Joe, painfully blinking at his friend."Do you think I'm hunting excitement?""Be hanged to ye!" said the red-bearded man.
"Can't I say a teasing word without gittin' called to order fer it? I know ye, my boy, as well as ye know yerself.Ye're a queer one.Ye're one of the few that must know all sides of the world--and can't content themselves with bein' respectable!