"Hi, there! Fe-fo-fum, or whatever it is that they call ye!"
Ah-Fo looked up with a smile of delighted recognition, which, as Dennis
gave a few preliminary stamps, and began to whistle and shuffle,
expanded into such hearty laughter, that he was obliged to sit down to
it by the roadside.
"Look here, Dennis," said our host; "we shall have a crowd collecting if
you go on with this tomfoolery. Send him off."
"All right, old fellow. Beg your pardon. Good-bye, Te-to-tum."
It was not a respectful farewell, but there is a freemasonry of
friendliness apart from words. Dennis had a kindly heart toward his
fellow-creatures everywhere, and I never knew his fellow-creatures fail
to find it out.
"Good-bye," said Ah-Fo, lingeringly.
"Good-bye again. I say, old mandarin," added the incorrigible Dennis,
leaning confidentially over the balcony, "got on pretty well below
there? Or did O'Brien keep the tail of his eye too tight on ye? Did ye
manage to coax a greatcoat of a hall-table or any other trifle of the
kind up those sleeves of yours?"
This time Ah-Fo looked genuinely bewildered, but he gazed at Dennis as
if he would have given anything to understand him.
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