midnight
` Well , Andy , ' says I , ` if you are bound to get rid of this accumulation of vernacular suppose you go out in town and work it on some indulgent citizen . Me and the boys will take care of the business . Everybody will be through dinner pretty soon , and salt pork and beans makes a man pretty thirsty . We ought to take in $ 1,500 more by midnight . ' `` So Andy goes out of the Blue Snake , and I see him stopping men on the street and talking to 'em . By and by he has half a dozen in a bunch listening to him ; and pretty soon I see him waving his arms and elocuting at a good-sized crowd on a corner . When he walks away they string out after him , talking all the time ; and he leads 'em down the main street of Bird City with more men joining the procession as they go .