“I guess they think it must be the Fourth o’ July,” Daisy answered; and she called down the passageway: “Here! Come wait on us. We want to look at some unb’eached muslin an’ _orstrich_ feathers. Can’t you hurry _up_?” No one replied, but voices became audible, approaching;—voices in simultaneous outbursts, and manifesting such poignant emotion that although there were only two of them, a man’s and a woman’s, Daisy and Elsie at first supposed that seven or eight people were engaged in the controversy. For a moment they also supposed the language to be foreign, but discovered that some of the expressions used were familiar, though they had been accustomed to hear them under more decorous circumstances. “They’re makin’ an awful fuss,” Elsie said. “What _are_ they talkin’ about?” “The way it sounds,” said Daisy, “it sounds like they’re talkin’ about things in the Bible.” Then another explosion was heard, closer; it seemed to come from a region just beyond the passageway; and it was immediately followed by a clatter of lumber and an increase of eloquence in the vocal argument. “You _quit_ that!” the man’s voice bellowed plaintively. “You don’t know what you’re doin’; you blame near croaked me that time! You _quit_ that, Mabel!” “I’m a-goin’ to learn you!” the woman’s voice announced. “You come out from under them boards, and I’ll learn you whether I know what I’m doin’ or not! Come out!” “_Please_ go on away and lea’ me alone,” the man implored. “_I_ never done nothin’ to you. I never seen a _cent_ o’ that money! _Honest_, George never give me a cent of it. Why’n’t you go an ast _him_? He’s right in yonder. Oh, my goodness, whyn’t you ast _him_?” “Come out from under them boards!” The man’s voice became the more passionate in its protesting. “Oh, my goodness! Mabel, can’t you jest ast George? He ain’t left the place; _you_ know _that_! He can’t show his face in daytime, and he’s right there in the bar, and so’s Limpy. Limpy’ll tell you jest the same as what George will, if you’ll only go and ast ’em. _Why_ can’t you go and _ast_ ’em?” “Yes!” the woman cried. “And while I’m in there astin’ ’em, where’ll _you_ be? Over the alley fence and a mile away! You come out from under them boards and git croaked like you’re a-goin’ to!” “Oh, my _good_ness!” the man wailed. “I _wish_ I had somep’m on me to lam you with! Jest once! That’s all I’d ast—jest one little short crack at you!” “You come out from under them boards!” “I won’t! I’ll lay here till——” “We’ll _see_!” the woman cried. “I’m a-goin’ to dig you out. I’m a-goin’ to take them boards off o’ you and then I’m a-goin’ to croak you. I am!” Elsie moved toward the outer door. “They talk so—so funny!” she said with a little anxiety. “I doe’ b’lieve it’s about the Bible.” “I guess she’s mad at somebody about somep’m,” Daisy said, much amused; and stepping nearer the passageway, she called: “_Here!_ We want to look at some unb’eached muslin an’ _orstrich_ feathers!”