"'Twasn't no thank-offerin'," replied Grandmother, shaking her head sagely. "That's what they call a tip."
"The agent was some upset by it," Matilda agreed. "He's been keepin' station here for more'n ten years now and nobody ever did the likes of that before."
"I didn't say it was an upsetment—I said it was a tip."
"What's the difference?"
"A tip is money that you give somebody who thinks he's done something for you, whether you think he has or not."
"I don't understand," Matilda muttered.
"I didn't either, at first," Grandmother admitted, "but I was readin' a piece in the paper about women travellin' alone and it said that 'in order to insure comfort, a tip should be given for every slight service.' Them's the very words."
"It means bowin', then," returned Matilda. "Bowin' and sayin', 'Thank you.'"
"It's no such thing. Wait till I get the paper."
After a prolonged search through the hoarded treasures of the past three or four months, Grandmother came back to her chair by the window, adjusted her spectacles, and began to read "The Lady Traveller by Land."