Ellis Parker Butler

Kilo Ellis Parker Butler

"[...] "Won't you come in?" she asked. "I don't seem to remember your face, but we would be glad to have you join us." Eliph' Hewlitt shook his head. "No'm," he said sadly. "I'd better not come in. Not that I don't want to, but I wouldn't be welcome. There ain't anything I like so much as church picnics, and when I was a boy I used to cry for them, but I wouldn't dare join you. I'm a"-he looked around cautiously, and said in a whisper-"I'm a book agent." The lady laughed. "Of course," she said, "that DOES make a difference; but you needn't be a book agent to-day. You can forget it for a while and join us." Eliph' Hewlitt shook his head again. "That's it," he said. "That's just the reason. I CAN'T forget it. I try to, but I can't. Just when I don't want to, I break out, and before I know it I've sold everybody a book, and then I feel like I'd imposed on good nature. They take me in as a friend and then I sell 'em a copy of Jarby's 'Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of Literature, Science and Art, ' ten thousand and one subjects, from A to Z, including recipes for every known use, quotations from famous authors, lives of famous men, and, in one word, all the world's wisdom condensed into one[...]."