“It ain’t Mr. Fallows,” she broke in sharply; “it’s Mr. Tucker. He ain’t got the feeling of a broomstick.”
“Now, Miss Jim,” began Jimmy Fallows in a teasing tone; but the lady turned her back upon him and addressed Mr. Opp.
“You see this portrait,” she said angrily, pulling it out from under the seat. “It took me four weeks, including two Sunday afternoons, to make it. I begun it the second week after Mrs. Tucker died, when I seen him takin’ on so hard at church. He was cryin’ so when they took up the collection that he never even [p111] seen the plate pass him. I went right home and set to work on this here portrait, thinking he’d be glad and willing to buy it from me. Wouldn’t you, if you was a widower?”
Mr. Opp gazed doubtfully at the picture, which represented Mr. Tucker sitting disconsolately beside a grave, with a black-bordered handkerchief held lightly between his fingers. A weeping-willow drooped above him, and on the tombstone at his side were two angels supporting the initials of the late Mrs. Tucker.
“Why, Miss Jim,” insisted Fallows, “you’re askin’ too much of old man Tucker to expect him to keep on seein’ a tombstone when he’s got one eye on you and one eye on the Widow Gusty. He ain’t got any hair on top of his head to part, but he’s took to partin’ it down the back, and I seen him Sunday trying to read the hymns without his spectacles. He started up on ‘Let a Little Sunshine In’ when they was singing ‘Come, ye Disconsolate.’ You rub out the face and [p112] the initials on that there picture and keep it for the nex’ widower. Ketch him when he’s still droopin’. You’ll get your money back. Your mistake was in waiting too long.”
“Speaking of waiting,” said Mr. Opp, impatiently, “there’s a call meeting of the Turtle Creek Land Co. for this morning at eleven at Your Hotel. Hope it’s convenient, Jimmy.”
“Oh, yes,” said Jimmy; “we got more empty chairs at Your Hotel than anything else. What’s the meeting for? Struck gold?”
Mr. Opp imparted the great news.
“Oh, my land!” exclaimed Miss Jim, “will they be here to-day?”
“Not until to-morrow night,” explained Mr. Opp. “This here meeting this morning is for the stock-holders only. We got to kinder outline our policy and arrange a sort of basis of operation.”