"Pa says so, and so does Ma, but——" he paused.
"Well?"
"Well—I ain't laying out to be no singer. Tommy took me to one of them singing factories one day, and the feller what heard me says, 'Well,' he says, 'he has a sweet enough voice, but that's about all for him.'"
"That was encouraging though."
"But I ain't hankering to get my living by singing. Anyway, that's not worrying me now—it's Tommy. Mister Epstein says he can guess, but he won't tell."
"Guess what's troubling Tommy?"
"Yes—and I wish I did. Maybe I could help—if I am only a boy."
"Well, we'll have to go slowly, William; it won't do to intrude on a man's private affairs."
"That's what Jimmy Duggan said when he laid out the burglar what was crackin' his safe in the coal yard office; only this is diff'rent; nobody ain't swipin' Tommy's money. I asked him and he says to me, 'Willyum, you know what our old friend Bill Shakespeare says.' And I says, 'What?' 'Well,' he says, 'Bill has a few lines to say it don't matter much who swipes me purse, it's what hits me heart that counts.'"
"Um—well, that may be Tommy's version of it: Shakespeare's was somewhat different."