"Not so's you'd notice it I ain't, Heppy," he rejoined, grinning.
"I think you be. You don't need a silver-banded pipe no more than our old cat needs two tails."
"Oh, sugar! I dunno. A cat with two tails would be something dif'rent, I do allow."
"You was born looking for trouble," his sister declared. "For love's sake! ain't you satisfied? We got our money back safe. Now let it be there——"
"To git stole again, mebbe?" he muttered.
"Better be stole than be frittered away, like you want to. You don't show any sense."
"Not any?" he asked slyly. "Not even when it comes to matchmakin'? Was I afraid to step in where you said angels was scare't to tread? Tell me that, now!"
Miss Heppy was for the moment silenced. Tobias chuckled unctuously.
"And I killed two birds with one stone, didn't I? Four on 'em, to be exact. Don't talk! If I hadn't started that story about the Nicholets and Endicotts going stone broke, would there ever been a double wedding last week in the First Church of Clinkerport, with Miss Ida and the professor getting hitched, and Ralph and Lorna follerin' suit?
"Oh, sugar! I give it as my opinion neither wedding would have come off if it hadn't been for me. I'm some little—er—well! whatever it was Ralph Endicott called me. I cal'late on lookin' up that word in the dictionary some day.