“‘And what if we do?’ I asked him. ‘Ain’t that as it should be? We’re twins.’
“‘You’re a pair of twin fools,’ says he, with his usual politeness. ‘One of you don’t know which side of his slice of bread the butter’s on.’
“I looked at mine. ‘The top side,’ I says, ‘so far,’ and Alf laughed.
“‘And you’ll find it butter side down, if you don’t have a care,’ snarled Uncle Jothan. ‘I got about tired of waiting for one of you to show some sense. I tell you there’s only room for one of you in the firm, and that one is going to handle my money. The other is going to be a poor man all his life.’
“‘Which one’s going to be poor, and which one rich?’ Alf asked him.
“‘You might as well tell us which will be rich, Uncle,’ I said, laughing. ‘For if it’s Alf, then I can begin to borrow from him right now.’
“‘That’s right,’ says Brother Alf. ‘What’s mine is yours.’
“That really made the old man mad, I expect. He pretty near gnashed his teeth.
“‘I believe I’ve got a pair of totally condemned fools for nephews!’ he yelled, only he put it even stronger.
“Oh, he was mad! I saw that we’d gone too far with him.