Chapter III.

Mr. Hercules Hedger, chairman of the Geegeeville Debating Society, was commissioned to wait on Bill and take delivery of the decisive outburst of wisdom.

He met Bill at the local “smiddy,” and, with a bellows-like strength so characteristic of his kind, he looked Bill fair in the eye, and rasped out:

“Bill, what is a ‘railsitter’?”

“A polygamist,” replied Bill, “is a man who keeps on making the same mistake all his life. A ‘railsitter’ is a man who learns from other people's mistakes, and never makes the same mistake twice.”

This, of course, was purely a side-step on the part of Bill, who was sparring for time.

Had Mr. Hercules Hedger asked what a “railsplitter” was, Bill would certainly have had page 17 old Abe Lincoln on the tip of his tongue. Hedger, however, had asked what a “railsitter” was, so Bill continued:

“A ‘railsitter’ is a man whose motto is ‘Safety First.’ He pays for a seat in a railway train, knowing that he will have the privilege of sitting in that seat with the assurance that at no stage of the journey will he be dumped out of that seat into a lagoon, on to a gorse hedge, or over a barbed wire fence.”