



Produced by Linda P. Kemper-Holzman, and David Widger









KILO

Being the Love Story of Eliph' Hewlitt Book Agent


By Ellis Parker Butler





Contents

KILO

   CHAPTER I.   Eliph' Hewlitt
   CHAPTER II.   Susan
   CHAPTER III.   "How to Win the Affections"
   CHAPTER IV.   Kilo
   CHAPTER V.   Sammy Mills
   CHAPTER VI.   The Castaway
   CHAPTER VII.   The Colonel
   CHAPTER VIII.  The Medium-Sized Box
   CHAPTER IX.   The Witness
   CHAPTER X.   The Boss Grafter
   CHAPTER XI.   The False Gods of Doc Weaver
   CHAPTER XII.   Getting Acquainted
   CHAPTER XIII.   "Second: A Small Present"
   CHAPTER XIV.   Something Turns Up
   CHAPTER XV.   Difficulties
   CHAPTER XVI.   Two Lovers, and a Third
   CHAPTER XVII.   According to Jarby's
   CHAPTER XVIII.      Another Trial
   CHAPTER XIX.   Pap Briggs' Hen Food






KILO




CHAPTER I. Eliph' Hewlitt

Eliph' Hewlitt, book agent, seated in his weather-beaten top buggy,
drove his horse, Irontail, carefully along the rough Iowa hill road that
leads from Jefferson to Clarence. The Horse, a rusty gray, tottered in
a loose-jointed manner from side to side of the road, half asleep in
the sun, and was indolent in every muscle of his body, except his tail,
which thrashed violently at the flies. Eliph' Hewlitt drove with his
hands held high, almost on a level with his sandy whiskers, for he was
well acquainted with Irontail.

The road seemed to pass through a region of large farms, offering few
opportunities for selling books, the houses being so far apart, but
Eliph' knew the small settlement of Clarence was a few miles farther
on, and he was carrying enlightenment to the benighted. He glowed with
missionary zeal. In his eagerness he thoughtlessly slapped the reins on
the back of Irontail.

Instantly the plump, gray tail of the horse flashed over the rein and
clamped it fast. Eliph' Hewlitt leaned over the dashboard of his buggy
and grasped the hair of the tail firmly. He pulled it upward with all
his strength, but the tail did not yield. Instead, Irontail kicked
vigorously. Eliph' Hewlitt, knowing his horse as well as he knew human
nature, climbed out of the buggy, and taking the rein close by the bit
led Irontail to the side of the road. Then he took from beneath the
buggy seat a bulky, oil-cloth-wrapped parcel and seated himself near the
horse's head. There was no safety for a timid driver when Irontail had
thus assumed command of the rein. There was no way to get a rein from
beneath that tail but to ignore it. In an hour or so Irontail would
grow forgetful, carelessly begin flapping flies, and release the rein
himself.

Eliph' Hewlitt unwrapped the oilcloth from the object it enfolded. It
was a book. It was Jarby's 'Encyclopedia of Knowledge and Compendium of
Literature, Science, Art, Comprising Useful Information on One Thousand
and One Subjects, Including A History of the World, the Lives of all
Famous Men, Quotations From the World's Great Authors, One Thousand and
One Recipes, Et Cetera'. One Volume, five dollars bound in cloth; seven
fifty in morocco. Eliph' Hewlitt passed his hand affectionately over the
gilt-stamped cover, and then opened it at random and read.

For years he had been reading Jarby's Encyclopedia, and among its ten
thousand and one subjects he always found something new. It opened now
