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Mr. Hoopdriver.
"Indeed!" said Mr. Hoopdriver, attacking the moustache. "What machine,
may I ask?"
"
I have recently become possessed of a tricycle. A bicycle is, I
regret to say, considered too--how shall I put it?--flippant by my
parishioners. So I have a tricycle. I have just been hauling it hither."
"
Hauling!" said Jessie, surprised.
"With a shoe lace. And partly carrying it on my back."
The pause was unexpected. Jessie had some trouble with a crumb. Mr.
Hoopdriver's face passed through several phases of surprise. Then he saw
the explanation. "Had an accident?"
"I can hardly call it an accident. The wheels suddenly refused to go
round. I found myself about five miles from here with an absolutely
immobile machine."
"Ow!" said Mr. Hoopdriver, trying to seem intelligent, and Jessie
glanced at this insane person.
"
It appears," said the clergyman, satisfied with the effect he had
created, "that my man carefully washed out the bearings with paraffin,
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