"Sure, mum, so it would know what time to rise."
Her brother Mike has a saloon down on the Bowery.
The other day I went in to give him a message from Nora, and found him examining some sort of patent contraption guaranteed, if fastened in the furnace smokepipe, to effect a wonderful saving in the consumption of coal.
And just then such a thing was an object in New York, with hard coal soaring out of reach.
"And you say that wid wan av these patent dampers in me sthovepipe I'd save half me coal?" Mike was saying as I went in.
"That's it. It will do the work every time and save half your coal bill," declared the agent, eagerly.
"All right," says Mike, "thin, be jabers, phwat's the matter wid me takin' two and savin' the whole av it?"
