"And when will the trial come off? Perhaps I may be of some assistance to you and to my quondam friend, your sometime grandfather. I would drop all bitterness of feeling, all vain enmity, if I might do the revered patriarch a favor.
"My motto has been, and my motto is yet,
That it frequently pays to forgive and forget."
"Oh! I don't know," Ralph replied; "it'll be two or three months yet, anyway, I guess."
Rhyming Joe gazed thoughtfully at the stove.
Bummerton came and began to take away the dishes.
"What's your bill, landlord?" inquired Joe.
"D'ye want the bill for both of ye?"
"Certainly. My young friend here, if I remember rightly, invited me to dine with him. I am his guest, and he foots the bills. See?"
Ralph did not remember to have asked Rhyming Joe to dine with him, but he did not want to appear mean, so he said:—
"Yes, I'll foot the bill; how much is it?" taking out his little leather wallet as he spoke.