could mimic any man's voice. To show you how good
he was along this line, I'll tell you the joke he played on
me once.
You know, in most towns of any size, when a man is
dead and needs a shave, why the barber that shaves
him soaks him five dollars for the job; that is, he don't
soak him, but whoever ordered the shave. I just charge
three dollars because personally I don't mind much
shavin' a dead person. They lay a whole lot stiller than
live customers. The only thing is that you don't feel like
talkin' to them and you get kind of lonesome.
Well, about the coldest day we ever had here, two years
ago last winter, the phone rung at the house w'ile I was
home to dinner and I answered the phone and it was a
woman's voice and she said she was Mrs. John Scott
and her husband was dead and would I come out and
shave him.
Old John had always been a good customer of mine. But
they live seven miles out in the country, on the Streeter
road. Still I didn't see how I could say no.
So I said I would be there, but would have to come in a
jitney and it might cost three or four dollars besides the
price of the shave. So she, or the voice, it said that was
all right, so I got Frank Abbott to drive me out to the
place and when I got there, who should open the door
but old John himself! He wasn't no more dead than,
well, than a rabbit.
HYLAND
