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XIV.
At Cross Purposes.
FOR the next few days I hardly knew Brunt. He was depressed and out of sorts, not to say out of temper. John is always rather breezy, but I never before nor since knew him to be irritable. When his friends are aggravating he laughs at them, and if other people are bothersome he turns his back, which is a good broad one.
"What's the matter, Jack," said I, one day. "You seem out of sorts. Is it because you haven't been up Pike's
