AND THEIR NEIGHBORS. 
199 
bad. They called you a miserable, noisy, rat- 
tle-brain ; said you were constantly away from 
your wife, chattering ^nd rollicking ; in fact, 
that you do nothing from morning until night 
but gad about, singing to, or rather, worrying 
and disgusting, your neighbors.’’ 
My readers will see how the Towhees’ lan- 
guage has undergone a change since its 
original issue. It is always the case that a 
story increases, in passing from one party to 
another, like a ball of snow that a schoolboy 
rolls across a field in different directions. It 
is always well to make an allowance of one- 
half, for the imagination of the person who 
relates a scandal at second-hand. 
Bob had not enough sense to know this, and 
he at once believed that he was cruelly injured 
by the Towhees. You can never hurt a con- 
ceited fellow so keenly as through his vanity. 
Give him the worst of characters in the world ; 
say he will rob, murder, commit almost any 
crime, — and he will forgive you ; but tell the 
truth about him, and expose his weak points, 
and he is your enemy for all time. 
