“Where would I git a nautomobile?”
“I can introduce you to the man who sold me mine.”
“How would I get the price?”
“Just where I did.”
“Whurr’s that?”
“Oh, all over the place. I used to be a common unskilled laborer like you. And now I own a good part of this business. Thousands of men who began poorer than I did are richer than I am. The road’s just as open to you as to me.”
Jake had plenty of answers for this. He had memorized numbers of them from the tracts; but also he had plans that would not be furthered by quarreling with Davidge the first day. He could do Davidge most harm by obeying him and outwardly catering to him. He solaced his pride with a thought of what Davidge’s business would look like when he got through with it.
He laughed: “All right, boss. I was just beefin’, for the fun of beefin’. Them shanties suit me elegant.”
Then his fool wife had to go and bust in, “Oh, Jake, if you would do like Mr. Davidge done, and git rich and live easy!”
Jake gave her a pantomimic rebuke that reduced her to a pulpy silence.