"Oh, him!" I says, relieved. "What of it?"
"They arrested him this morning!" says Ma, all broken up, the poor fish! "Arrested him just before the meeting!"
"Good!" I says. "I knew they would. The hound, he couldn't go around forever talking Bolshevism!"
"It wasn't for that," says Ma.
"Then for what?" I says, blankly.
"For back alimony!" says Ma, almost in tears. "It seems he married a girl out in Kansas several years ago, and they parted when the circus left, and it wasn't Russian he was talking, but Yiddish! He speaks English as well as me."
"And I suppose you'll tell me next that he wasn't talking Bolshevism," says I.
"He wasn't—he was only asking them to join the circus-workers' union Local 21—" says Ma. "He explained it all to the cops!"
"Ma!" I demanded solemnly, a light coming over me. "Ma, have you honestly got any idea what this Bolshevism is? Come on, own up!"
"Certainly!" she says. "It's something like Spiritualism or devil-worship, ain't it? A sort of fancy religion!"