"You hain't had no words, hev ye?" she asked anxiously.
"Wa'al, we didn't have what ye might call words. I was jest tryin' a little experiment with him."
"Humph," she remarked, "you're alwus tryin' exper'ments on somebody, an' you'll be liable to git ketched at it some day."
"Exceptin' on you," said David. "You don't think I'd try any experiments on you, do ye?"
"Me!" she cried. "You're at me the hull endurin' time, an' you know it."
"Wa'al, but Polly," said David insinuatingly, "you don't know how int'restin' you be."
"Glad you think so," she declared, with a sniff and a toss of the head. "What you ben up to with Mr. Lenox?"
"Oh, nuthin' much," replied Mr. Harum, making a feint of resuming his reading.
"Be ye goin' to tell me, or—air ye too 'shamed on't?" she added with a little laugh, which somewhat turned the tables on her teasing brother.
"Wa'al, I laid out to try an' read this paper," he said, spreading it out on his lap, "but," resignedly, "I guess 't ain't no use. Do you know what a count'fit bill is?" he asked.