Dick: Well, then, listen and be serious. I have written a play—
Tom: Thirty days and costs.
Dick (sarcastically): I suppose you think you could write one.
Tom: I did write one; I wrote a melodrama.
Dick: A melodrama, eh? Was anybody killed?
Tom: No; the audience yelled for the author, but I wouldn’t come out.
Dick: Ha! Ha! It’s a good thing that you didn’t. Now in my first act—
Tom: Say, did you ever hear the story about my coal-bin?
Dick: No; is it a good one?
Tom: No; there’s nothing in it.