A Bar of Soap

Late that evening Betty Mercer and Dallas were writing verses of
condolence to be signed by all of us and put under the door into Jim's
room when Bella came running down the stairs.

Dal was reading the first verse when she came. "Listen to this, Bella,"
he said triumphantly: "There was a fat artist named Jas,
Who cruelly called his friends nas.
When, altho' shut up tight,
He broke out over night
With a rash that is maddening, he clas."

Then he caught sight of Bella's face as she stood in the doorway, and
stopped.

"Jim is delirious!" she announced tragically. "You shut him in there all
alone and now he's delirious. I'll never forgive any of you."

"Delirious!" everybody exclaimed.

"He was sane enough when I took him his chicken broth," Mr. Harbison
said. "He was almost fluent."

"He is stark, staring crazy," Bella insisted hysterically. "I--I locked
the door carefully when I went down to my dinner, and when I came up
it--it was unlocked, and Jim was babbling on the bed, with a sheet over
his face. He--he says the house is haunted and he wants all the men to
come up and sit in the room with him."

"Not on your life," Max said. "I am young, and my career has only begun.
I don't intend to be cut off in the flower of my youth. But I'll tell
you what I will do; I'll take him a drink. I can tie it to a pole or
something."