Elivin, did ye say?"
"Elivin," answered Jimmy, breaking into a jig, supposedly to keep
his feet warm, in reality because he could not stand quietly while
Dannie pulled off his mittens, got out and unstrapped his wallet,
and carefully counted out the money. "Is that all ye need?" he asked.
For an instant Jimmy hesitated. Missing a chance to get even a few
cents more meant a little shorter time at Casey's. "That's enough,
I think," he said. "I wish I'd staid out of matrimony, and then
maybe I could iver have a cint of me own. You ought to be glad you
haven't a woman to consume ivery penny you earn before it reaches
your pockets, Dannie Micnoun."
"I hae never seen Mary consume much but calico and food," Dannie
said dryly.
"Oh, it ain't so much what a woman really spinds," said Jimmy,
peevishly, as he shoved the money into his pocket, and pulled on
his mittens.
"It's what you know she would spind if she had the chance."
"I dinna think ye'll break up on that," laughed Dannie.
And that was what Jimmy wanted. So long as he could set Dannie
laughing, he could mold him.
"No, but I'll break down," lamented Jimmy in sore self-pity, as he
remembered the quarter sacred to the purchase of the milk pail.
"Ye go on, and hurry," urged Dannie. "If ye dinna start home by
seven, I'll be combing the drifts fra ye before morning."
"Anything I can do for you?" asked Jimmy, tightening his old red
neck scarf.
"Yes," answered Dannie. "Do your errand and start straight home,
your teeth are chattering noo.
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