Once more, being satisfied he had hit the nail on the head this time, the Cockney youth laughed loudly. In the midst of his laughter he stopped with his mouth wide open, suddenly realizing that no one else was laughing.
From behind the piano came a sound like sobs of distress.
“Say, what’s the matter with you now?” snapped Billy.
“I don’t think I ever saw a well in a watch,” confessed Gardner.
“Did Hi say a well?” gasped Billy. “That was a mistake; Hi meant a cistern. That’s hit! Don’t you see?—a cistern!”
Then, when they failed to laugh, he gripped Tubbs by the shoulder and shook him.
“Why don’t you laugh, you fat chump?” he shouted. “If you don’t laugh Hi will ’ave to ’it you.”
“He! he!” said Obediah moanfully.
Somehow this was more than they could stand, and suddenly the entire party burst into shrieks of laughter. Immediately a look of happiness and relief overspread Billy’s face, and in the midst of all this commotion and merriment he stood in the middle of the floor repeatedly slapping his knee and crying:
“Hi knew you would see the point! Hi thought you couldn’t ’elp seeing the point! Hit’s hawful funny! Hit’s the funniest joke Hi hever ’eard!”