"When Bill Larkins made his money,
Piled it up in heaps galore,
Dam old fool he wasn't happy,
'Cause he always wanted more."
Even this didn't have the desired effect. He could stand anything from his wife but dead silence. That alone affected him.
"Say, Tildy," he at length ventured.
"Well, what is it? I should think you'd be ashamed to speak to me after such insulting words."
"But, Tildy."
"Yes, I hear you. What is it?"
"Didn't Ikey Dimock squirm when I landed on him? Ho, ho!"
"And I squirmed, too, Abner. I never felt so ashamed of anything in all my life."
"But ye didn't squirm like Ikey, though, Tildy. My, it tickled me all to pieces to give him that jolt. Why, I knew Ikey when he used to pick pin-feathers off his mother's chickens when she was gittin' 'em ready fer market. He wasn' sich a bad critter then. But since he got hitched to that high-flyer, an' set up in the hardware bizness, ye can't touch him with a ten-foot pole. But I made him squirm. Ho, ho! G'long, Jerry."
"Maybe you'll squirm, Abner, when they come for that money. Then it won't be such fun. I wonder what Jess'll say. She's coming home to-morrow, remember."