"I don't see that you do," said the lawyer. "Your clothes are about as good as mine. There isn't a hole in them."
"Winter is coming on, and I want some thicker clothes than these to wear. It wouldn't look well for me to go around wearing summer clothes, for some of the boys might ask me what I had been doing all the season."
The lawyer laughed loudly. It wouldn't be hard work to tell what Joe had been doing all summer. He was right where he could borrow money of his wife when he needed it.
"Well, I want you to understand that I can't get any money for you," said Mr. Gibbons. "You see, I didn't know anything about this pearl until you told me just now, consequently I had no hand in putting the money in the bank. You will have to go to the president and see what he has got to say about it; though, to tell you the truth, it won't do you any good."
"Oh, the president is a worse man than you are," said Joe, in consternation. "I wouldn't go to him."
"That's the only thing you can do. You see, they don't know that the money belongs to Hank any more than I do. It is there to Bob's credit, and Bob is the only one who can get it. I don't see any other way for it but for you to go to work."
"I can't. The wound in my side bothers me so that I don't know what my name is."
"Well, then, there's the poor-house; you can go to that by getting a commission—"
"Poor-house! Not much I won't go there."
"I think myself that you will be safer in trusting to your wife. They are pretty strict in the poor-house."