"Wiley," he said, "you ain't to blame for being born a fool. That weren't yore doing. But it wouldn't hurt you none if you tried to overcome the handicap."

Texans come up with the best insults.

" Forty sous!" said a carter, in a low tone, to the Thénardier woman; "why, the charge is only twenty sous!"

"It is forty in his case," retorted the Thénardier, in the same tone. "I don't lodge poor folks for less."

"That's true," added her husband, gently; "it ruins a house to have such people in it."

The quintessential animal book, I love Herriot's fictionalized stories for the depth and richness of the landscape and people of Yorkshire portrayed within.