And David saw that he
was trying to make it easy for him. His heart swelled with a strange
gratitude; he unbent suddenly and met the rough kindnesses more than
half way. They were not the kind of men he was used to,--they were not
gentlemen; but they stood ready to be his friends, and something told
him that they would ring true to the very end if he met them half way.
They had their own undeviating regard for what they called honor:
honor meant loyalty and fairness, nothing more. Simple, genial,
unpolished braggarts were they, but their word was as good or better
than a gentleman's bond. David was soon to fall under the spell of
this bland comradeship: he was to see these men in a light so bright
that it blinded him to their vulgarities, their quaint blasphemy and
their prodigious lack of veracity as applied to personal achievements.
He was to find in them a splendid chivalry, almost unbelievable at
first: their regard for the women in the troupe was in the nature of a
revelation to him, who came from the land of gallantry itself.
"Say, kid," said Signor Anaconda, "the human snake," suddenly adopting
a serious mien,--which did not become him,--"you gotta change your
name.
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