"How many does he want?" inquired his wife. He had sunk on his doorstep on coming home at dusk, and sat with speculative eyes on the pale western sky, while his wife sat judicially, quite filling with her heated bulk a large rocking-chair, placed for greater coolness in front of the step, in the middle of the slate walk. "He wants all mine and all I can hire in New Sanderson," replied Rawdy. "Lord!" ejaculated his wife. "All them?" "All them," replied Rawdy, moodily triumphant. "Well," said his wife, "that ain't the point." "No, it ain't," agreed Rawdy. "The point is," said she, "is he agoin' to or ain't he agoin' to pay." "That's so," said Rawdy. "He's a-owin' everybody, ain't he?" said the wife. "Pooty near, I guess." "Well, you ain't goin' to let one of your cerridges go, let alone hirin', unless he pays ahead." "Lord! Dilly, how'm I goin' to ask him?" protested Rawdy. "How? Why, the way anybody would ask him. 'Ain't you got a tongue in your head?" demanded she. "You dunno what a man he is. I asked him the other night when I drove him up, and it wa'n't a job I liked, I can tell you." "Did he pay you?" "Paid me some of it." "He's owin' you now, ain't he?" "Well, he ain't owin' much, only the few times their cerridge 'ain't been down. It ain't much, Dilly." "But it's something." "Yes; everythin' that ain't nothin' is somethin', I s'pose." "And now you're goin' right on an' lettin' him have all your cerridges, and you'll be wantin' me to help clean the seats, too, I'll warrant, and you're agoin' to hire into the bargain, with him owin' you and owin' everybody else in town." "Now, Dilly, I didn't say I was agoin' to," protested Rawdy. "An' me needin' a new dress, and 'ain't had one to my back for two years, and them Carroll women in a different one every time they appear out, and the girl having enough clothes for a Vanderbilt. I guess Stella Griggs will rue the day. She's a fool, and always was. If you can afford to give that man money you can afford to get me a new dress. I'd go to the weddin'--it's free, in the church--if I had anything decent to wear." "Now, Dilly, what can I do? I leave it to you," asked Samson Rawdy, with confessed helplessness. "Do?" said she. "Why, tell him he's got to pay ahead or he can't have the cerridges. If you're afraid to, I'll ask him. I ain't afraid." "Lord! I ain't afraid, Dilly," said Rawdy. "You'd better clean up, after supper, an' go up there and tell him," said Dilly Rawdy, mercilessly. In the end Rawdy obeyed, having shaved and washed, and set forth. When he returned he was jubilant. "He's a gentleman, I don't care what they say," said he, "and he treated me like a gentleman. Gave me a cigar, and asked me to sit down. He was smokin', himself, out on the porch. The women folks were in the house. "Did he pay you?" asked Mrs. Rawdy. Then Rawdy shook a fat roll of bills in her face. "Look at here," said he. "The whole of it?"