"What? What, Vi? What?"
"A cool hundred, darlin'. Ingram—the Aid Society, because it's Christmas, darlin'. They opened up—a cool hundred! We—we can light out To-morrow, darlin'. A cool hundred! Old Ingram, the old skinflint, he opened up like—like a oyster. South, all of us, to-morrow, darlin'; it ain't nothing for me to get a job South. When I seen it was snowin' I'd 'a' killed somebody to get it. I—I had to have it and we got it, darlin', we—we got it—a cool hundred!"
He lay back on the pillow, suddenly limp, the bill fluttering to the coverlet, and she slid her arm beneath his head.
"You could have knocked me down, too, darlin'. Easy, just like that he forked over. 'What's a Aid Society for?' he kept sayin'. 'What's a Aid Society for?'"
"Vi, I—"
"Don't cry, darlin', don't cry. I just can't stand it!"
"I—"
"'S-s-s-s-h! Easy, just like that he gimme it, darlin'."
"And me lying here hatin' him for a skinflint and his store for a bloodsucker and the Aid Society for a fake!"
"Yes, yes, darlin'."