“I believe I’ll take a chance on it,” said Baxter, with a defiant glance at Mrs. Grimes and the supercilious Gooches.
Mrs. Grimes was deeply though secretly impressed by the words and manner of the gypsy. She nodded her head and Baxter brightened. Mr. Gooch, however, exclaimed:
“Don’t be a fool, Baxter. Money don’t grow on bushes.”
Young Mrs. Sage jumped up from her chair. “I’ve got an idea,” she cried briskly. “Suppose we all chip in a silver piece toward the fortune of Oliver October. It’s his birthday, so let’s start him off right. You pass the hat, Mr. Sikes. Chip in for me, Herbert. I left my purse on the piano.”
“I didn’t know you had a piano,” said Mrs. Grimes, pricking up her ears.
“Figure of speech,” said Mrs. Sage, airily. “If I had a piano I would have left my purse upon it if I had a purse.”
There was a jingling of small coins in several pockets. The swarthy faces of the two gypsies brightened. Horace Gooch glanced at his big watch—a silver one—and said sharply:
“Didn’t I tell you to get your things on, Ida? We’ve got a long, cold drive ahead of us.” Then, somewhat defiantly: “Besides, I haven’t got anything smaller than a silver dollar. No baby’s fortune is worth a dollar.”
“I guess the queen can change a dollar for you, Mr. Gooch,” said Mrs. Grimes. “Joe, if you have a spare quarter, put it in for me. I’ll hand it back to-morrow.”
Sikes picked up the parson’s stove-pipe hat and, fishing some coins out of his pocket, dropped two of them into the hollow depths of the “tile.”