"You--! what you doing down here? What right have you to be running the streets on a day like this?" he blurted, his eyes bulging wrathfully. "Oh, chuck it, Amy! This is the best show we've had since the calliope blew up and killed the elephant in the circus when I was seven years old. I've been to the meeting. The Honorable Alec delivered a noble oration; he told them that everybody, including you and daddy, is crooked; he's the only honest man. It was the supreme and ultimate lim_ite_!" "Want to burn me in effigy? Call me a horned plutocrat?" "Oh, he didn't mention you, or daddy either, by name; just hinted that you were both trying to rob the Sycamore bondholders." Amzi put his feet on a chair, settled his hat comfortably on the back of his head, and chewed his cigar meditatively. "Thunder! You'd better keep away from indignation meetings where Alec's going to speak. You're likely to get shot." "Not I, sir. I called him a coward, right there in the meeting. A most unladylike proceeding; indeed, it was, Amy. "When rose the maid upon a chair, Some called her false: none named her fair: Nathless she saw nor sneer nor frown, But 'C-o-w-a-r-d' flung her challenge down." Amzi ignored her couplets--Phil's impromptu verses always embarrassed him--and demanded the particulars. He chuckled as she described the meeting. He cross-examined her to be sure that she omitted nothing. Her report of his brother-in-law's tirade gave him the greatest delight. As they talked, they heard plainly the commotion in the streets. "I like the way you take things," said Phil. "The town's gone crazy, and there's a mob in front of your little toy bank, but you're not even peevish." "Some old schoolmate threw a brick at me awhile ago when I went out for air and that annoyed me," Amzi admitted. "If those fellows out there who haven't any money in any bank, and never will have any, would only go home, I'd do something to relieve the pressure. I hanker for a chance to cross the street, but they won't let me. I called the mayor on the telephone and demanded that he send over the fire department and sprinkle 'em, but he said he couldn't unless I'd turn in an alarm--had the nerve to tell me it would be against the city ordinances! What do you think of that, Phil? Guess the police force is under the bed at home. But I can wait. There's nothing like waiting. Take it from me that you'd better trot along to your tea. You're rather cute in that hat. I suppose it burnt a hole in a ten-dollar-bill." "Twenty-five, Amy." "No wonder there's a panic! Go out and show yourself, so they can see what a plutocrat looks like. I guess that would cause 'em to break windows all right." "Ungrateful old man! Main Street will be opened for traffic in a few minutes, thanks to the head under the hat you feign to despise. I sent Fred over to the college to bring the boys down to clean things up. They're about due, methinks." "Fred in town?" "Why ask? It's Saturday and he's a farmer."