"Ahem!" says Joe Leity, "I guess I'll blow! I—"
"Me, too!" pipes the gang like a chorus and does a few more vamps to the door.
"Why don't you introduce your friends?" says the wife. "Or maybe you just run across these boys yourself when you come in, heh?"
"Excuse!" I says. "This here's Joe Leity, Abe Katz, Phil Young, Red Dailey, Steve—"
"Never mind callin' the roll," she butts in. "I'll let it go en masse. I'm delighted to meet you all, and I hope you won't run away simply because I'm here."
"Oh, no—not at all—we ain't runnin' away!" they says.
"There's no reason for you boys runnin' anyways," the wife goes on, "because the elevator is right outside now and I think the boy is holdin' the car for you—"
They blowed!
"And now," says the wife to me, "what d'ye mean by bringin' them plumbers up here for a union meetin', eh?"
"Don't be always knockin'!" I answers, gettin' peeved. "Them boys is all honest and true, even if they do look a little rough to the naked eye. But how is it you come back to-day when you wasn't due for a month?"