Get up at once and make a case. Wear an
overcoat and ride in the bus."
But John bade Ann go to Richmond and to say this and that to the owner
of the house. Ann went and the house was empty.
A third time Silas came out of Barnes, bringing with him gifts. These
are the gifts that he offered his brother John: a tin of lobster, a tin
of sardines, a tin of salmon, and a tin of herrings; and through each
tin, in an unlikely place, he had driven the point of a gimlet.
"Eat these," he said, "and good they will do you."
"Much obliged," replied John. "I'll try a herring with bread and butter
and vinegar to supper. Very much obliged. It was not my blame that we
quarreled. Others had his eye on the agency."
"Tish, I did not want the old Mermaid. You keep her. I got the sole
agency for the Gwendoline."
"How is Gwendolines going?"
"More than I can do to keep ztok of her. Four dozen gents' laces and
three dozen ladies' ditto on the twenty-fifth, and soon I order another
four dozen ladies' buttons."
John called Ann and to her he said: "How is Mermaid ztok?"
"We are almost out of nine gents and four ladies," answered Ann.
"Write Nuncle Silas the order and he'll drop her in the Zity.
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