`` You wo n't take the trouble to get up a decent meal . '' `` Oh , I do , Mistress Doctor , I do , '' protested Captain Jim . `` Why , I live like a king gen ` rally . Last night I was up to the Glen and took home two pounds of steak . I meant to have a spanking good dinner today . '' `` And what happened to the steak ? '' asked Mrs. Doctor Dave . `` Did you lose it on the way home ? '' `` No . '' Captain Jim looked sheepish . `` Just at bedtime a poor , ornery sort of dog came along and asked for a night 's lodging . Guess he belonged to some of the fishermen ` long shore . I could n't turn the poor cur out -- he had a sore foot . So I shut him in the porch , with an old bag to lie on , and went to bed . But somehow I could n't sleep . Come to think it over , I sorter remembered that the dog looked hungry . '' `` And you got up and gave him that steak -- ALL that steak , '' said Mrs. Doctor Dave , with a kind of triumphant reproof . `` Well , there was n't anything else TO give him , '' said Captain Jim deprecatingly . `` Nothing a dog 'd care for , that is . I reckon he WAS hungry , for he made about two bites of it .
I had a fine sleep the rest of the XXXXX but my dinner had to be sorter scanty -- potatoes and point , as you might say .
Dave Doctor Glen Jim dog gen night porch pounds sorter