“G’wan, she’ll land a big one yet, ’fore she’s through,” said Harry. “Mabe’s a wise girlie, and I’m with her all the time!”
“Same here,” Mabel answered affectionately, as she pulled her brother’s hair.
“I s’pose I’m the boob uh this fam’ly,” said Blanche, “but I won’t lose no sleep over it. ’F I like the way a man talks, ’n how he looks, I don’t care what’s the size of his roll.”
“You got it from me, you did,” her mother said, with a dully soft look. “It’s I that married your father when he hadn’t a cent to his name. ’Twas the way he could blarney, ’twas that, and ’twas the face of him that made me take him.”
“Aw, pa’s all right, but he’s shy on brains,” Mabel said. “’F I ever get hooked up with any man he’s got to have plenty uh money, and then some. I’m worth all the dough in the world ’cordin’ to my way uh thinkin’, and I’m not scrubbin’ floors for no fella this year ’r next. This lovin’-up stuff don’t get you much.”
“Yeh, Blanche is a mut with alla her Rosinburgs, ’n Kellies, ’n all the rest uh them tin-horn pikers,” said Harry. “I know how she’ll wind up, all right. Some guy’ll have her washin’ his clothes an makin’ her like it!”
“Ma’s been washing yours and pa’s for years, but you’re not kicking about that,” answered Blanche. “Anyway it won’t be some one like you. You think that row-mance is something people clean their shoes with, you do. You’ve got a heart like a oyster, I’ll say.”
“Row-ma-ance, that’s good,” answered Harry, derisively. “Try an’ cash in on it at the butcher shop an’ see what you get.”
“Well, I’m on Blanie’s side,” said Philip, who liked his older sister because she was “softer” than the other members of the family. “When I marry a girl she’s got to love me, first, last, ’n’ all the time. I’m strong for the jack, sure, but there’s other things hanging around.”
“Say, isn’t Joe Campbell comin’ up to-night?” asked Mabel, turning to Blanche.