“‘Why, la, Benny,’ she said, ‘can’t you live and die like your fathers without leaving your own country?’
“So I answered right up and down:
“‘No, Polly, I cannot. And as we must go to Europe some time, to show it to our girl, if for no other reason, we can’t choose a better time than this when our old neighbors are over there. We’ll go and join them and have a good time.’
“Well, upon the whole, Polly didn’t dislike the idea of the trip; and as for Nancy, she was all for it. So we up and came.”
“You must have decided and acted with great promptitude to be over here so soon after us.”
“Didn’t we, though! We set the house in order the next day, which was Tuesday; packed up Wednesday, went to New York Thursday, and sailed for Liverpool on Saturday.”
“What! and had not previously engaged berths in your steamer?”
“No; didn’t know that was necessary until I went into the agent’s office. And then it was by a stroke of luck we got the rooms. A family who were going out by that steamer that day were unavoidably delayed, and had to give up their berths. And I engaged them.”
“Well, certainly, you were more lucky than you knew.”
“Yes, ‘a fool for luck,’ it is said.”