Daniel was counting his small change.
“What say?” he asked.
His wife repeated her question, raising her voice to carry above the noises of the street.
“Feel it! Yes, yes; and hear it, too. How we're ever goin' to sleep with all that hullabaloo outside I don't know. Don't you suppose we could get a quieter room than this, Serena?”
“I don't want a quiet room. I don't want to sleep. I feel as if I'd been asleep all my life. Now, thank goodness, I am where people are really awake. What are you doing with that money?”
“Oh, just lookin' at it, while I can. I shan't have the chance very long, if the other folks in this town are like that hack driver. A dollar to drive half a mile in that hearse! Why, the whole shebang wa'n't worth more than two dollars, to buy. And then he had the cheek to ask me to give him 'a quarter for himself.'”
“Yes, that was his tip. We must expect that. Gertrude says she always has to tip the servants and drivers and such at college. Did you give it to him?”
“Who? Me? I told him I was collectin' for a museum, and I'd give him a quarter for the horse, just as it stood—or WHILE it stood. I said he'd better take the offer pretty quick because the critter looked as if 'twould lay down most any minute.”
He chuckled. Serena, however, was very solemn.
“Daniel,” she said, “I must speak to you again about your language. You've lived in Trumet so long that you talk just like Azuba, or pretty nearly as bad. You mustn't say 'critter' and 'wa'n't' and 'cal'late.' Do try, won't you, to please me?”