Asaph smiled. “If the bush was in the middle of a field,” said he, “and there was only one boy after the bird, it would be a pretty tough job. But if the bush is in the corner of two high walls, and there’s two boys, and one of ’em’s got a fishnet what he can throw clean over the bush, why, then the chances is a good deal better. But droppin’ figgers, Thomas, and speakin’ plain and straightforward, as I always do—”
“About things you want to git,” interrupted Thomas.
“—about everything,” resumed Asaph. “I’ll just tell you this: if I don’t git decent clothes now to-day, or perhaps to-morrow, I have got to travel out of Marietta’s house. I can do it and she knows it. I can go back to Drummondville and git my board for keepin’ books in the store, and nobody there cares what sort of clothes I wear. But when that happens, your chance of gittin’ Marietta goes up higher than a kite.”
To the mind of Mr. Rooper this was most conclusive reasoning; but he would not admit it and he did not like it. “Why don’t your sister give you clothes?” he said. “Old Himes must have left some.”
A thin chill like a needleful of frozen thread ran down Asaph’s back. “Mr. Himes’s clothes!” he exclaimed. “What in the world are you talkin’ about, Thomas Rooper? ‘Tain’t likely he had many, ‘cept what he was buried in; and what’s left, if there is any, Marietta would no more think of givin’ away than she would of hangin’ up his funeral wreath for the canary-bird to perch on. There’s a room up in the garret where she keeps his special things—for she’s awful particular—and if there is any of his clothes up there I expect she’s got ’em framed.”
“If she thinks as much of him as that,” muttered Mr. Rooper.
“Now don’t git any sech ideas as them into your head, Thomas,” said Asaph, quickly. “Marietta ain’t a woman to rake up the past, and you never need be afraid of her rakin’ up Mr. Himes. All of the premises will be hern and yourn except that room in the garret, and it ain’t likely she’ll ever ask you to go in there.”
“The Lord knows I don’t want to!” ejaculated Mr. Rooper.
The two men walked slowly to the end of a line of well-used, or, rather, badly used, wooden arm-chairs which stood upon the tavern piazza, and seated themselves. Mr. Rooper’s mind was in a highly perturbed condition. If he accepted Asaph’s present proposition he would have to make a considerable outlay with a very shadowy prospect of return.
“If you haven’t got the ready money for the clothes,” said Asaph, after having given his companion some minutes for silent consideration, “there ain’t a man in this village what they would trust sooner at the store for clothes,” and then after a pause he added, “or books, which, of course, they can order from town.”