“Ha! brother Terrapin, that was a nasty fall. You remember the rubber, don’t you? There is nothing like the advice you gave me. Try again, Terrapin, my brother. Try again.”
“You killed my ma, did you not?” asked Terrapin.
“I thought you told me that you had killed her according to agreement. Then how can you say that I killed her?” asked Miss Crane.
“That was not my ma I gave you. It was only a lump of rubber.”
“Ho, ho! You confess it then? Well, we are now quits. You induced me to kill my ma, and as you could not keep your part of the bargain, I saved you the trouble. My ma was as much to me as your ma was to you. We have both lost our ma’s now. So let us call it even, and be friends again.”
Terrapin hesitated, but the memory of his ma’s loss soon produced the old bitterness, and he became as unforgiving as ever. Miss Crane must, however, be persuaded that the matter was forgiven, otherwise he would never have the opportunity to avenge his ma’s death.
“All right, Crane,” he answered; “but let me come up, and embrace you over it, or do you descend and let us shake hands.”
“Come up, by all means, Terrapin. I am always at home to friends,” said Miss Crane.
Terrapin upon this began to climb, but as he was ascending he foolishly began to think aloud again, and he was heard saying—