"Very good; very good. You're rather simple, Bill; rather soft, I must confess. Well, no matter. I shall yet turn the tab—a—hem! You are an exceedingly simple fellow, Bill; still there will come a day, my dear Bill—there will come——"
"Do you grumble, you vagrant? Another word, and I double the terms."
"Mum, William—mum; tace is Latin for a candle."
"Seven years more of grace, and the same measure of the needful that I got before. Ay or no?"
"Of grace, Bill! Ay! ay! ay! There's the cash. I accept the terms. Oh blood! the rascal—of grace!! Bill!"
"Well, now drop the hammer, and vanish," says Billy; "but what would you think to take this sledge, while you stay, and give me a——eh! why in such a hurry?" he added, seeing that Satan withdrew in double-quick time.
"Hollo! Nicholas!" he shouted, "come back; you forgot something!" and when the old gentleman looked behind him, Billy shook the hammer at him, on which he vanished altogether.
Billy now got into his old courses; and what shows the kind of people the world is made of, he also took up with his old company. When they saw that he had the money once more, and was sowing it about him in all directions, they immediately began to find excuses for his former extravagance.
"Say what you will," said one, "Bill Dawson's a spirited fellow, and bleeds like a prince."
"He's a hospitable man in his own house, or out of it, as ever lived," said another.