“Poor Pa. He’s so glad to meet some sensible folks, that he doesn’t stop to think how hard his hand is, with all the mining and picking at gold ore, out west,” added Dodo, smiling sympathetically at Eleanor, and then at her father.
“Right again! This traipsing to U-rope fer a title, isn’t my kind of work. But I jus’ couldn’t let Ma run off with Dodo and all my cash, when I knew Dodo diden’ want to. So I says, ‘Onless you lug me along wherever you go, my cash stays behind in America.’ You-all know, ‘cash makes the mare go,’ so I was included in the trip.”
The little man chuckled and caused the others to laugh at his amusing expression. Then he leaned forward and said confidentially: “But I’ll confess, all this tight-fittin’ clothes, and a boiled shirt with stiff collars and cuffs ain’t to my likin’! I have to pinch my feet into shiny tight shoes, and use a tie that has to be knotted every day, ’stead of a ready-made one that I can hook on to my collar-button.”
At that admission, the girls laughed merrily and Mr. Fabian simply roared, for he understood collar-buttons and the agony Mr. Alexander must endure.
The little man felt that he was making fine headway in his conversational powers, so he continued to practice the art.
“But say! let me tell you-all—when Ma carted me to Noo York and made me take dancing lessons to get graceful, I tried it twicet—then I balked! ‘No more of them monkey-shines for an old miner,’ says I. And I never did it again, did I, Dodo?”
Dodo laughed and shook her head, and the others renewed their mirth. Mr. Alexander was now encouraged to proceed.
“Ma went to a Madam Something-er-other fer to learn how to act in polite society and how to not do the wrong things at the right time, and vice versy, but she coulden get me to go there! I spent that time at the Movies or ridin’ on the Fifth Avenoo bus, and laughin’ at folks—the way they rushed around like ants.
“But here I am, mixin’ in as good comp’ny as I want, and it ain’t costin’ me a cent to sit in a little room and listen to a fat old woman who charges a dollar a throw.” As he concluded his speech, a group of people standing directly back of Mr. Fabian and the girls, joined the circle.
Mr. Alexander instantly froze up and felt uncomfortable lest they had heard him speak. Then Mr. Fabian eased his mind by saying: “Now you can meet the Ashbys, Mr. Alexander. Miss Dodo, this is Mrs. Ashby, and Ruth, and Mr. Ashby. And this is a new friend, Mr. Ashby, but an old acquaintance of Polly and Eleanor’s from Denver—Mr. Alexander and Miss Dodo.”