“‘Swell!’ she say.
“‘You think somebody like to marry me? I got dam-fine house, and furniture, and Smiler.’
“‘Somebody might,’ she say.
“Well, Phil,––I seem to be getting on pretty good, so I take the bull by the tail and say right bang off the wrong side of the bat, ‘You be my wife?’
“‘What?’ she say, as if maybe she make a mistake in her ear-drums.
“‘You marry me?’ I ask again.
“She pull the blinds down all over her face just like 147 biff. She take one swing on me, Phil, right there, and pretty near break my jaw;––knock my four dollar hat all to hell in the middle of the road and walk away laughing like, like––oh, like big, fat, laundry maid laugh.”
Very seriously, Phil asked his further adventures.
“Ain’t that plenty for one day? No dam-good catch wife that way. I try another trick, though. Maybe it work better.”
“What’s the other trick, Sol?”