MRS. BENSON _Rises to meet him._ Why, hello, Hiram. HIRAM How do you do, Mary? Golly, but you have a swell home! A feller told me this was where you lived so I walked right in without knocking. This is a swell room—don’t you sorter feel like a snake in a bird’s nest? MRS. BENSON How did you happen to come here? HIRAM I was just takin’ a little vacation to see the sights. Many of our learned men get much of their education just traveling. MRS. BENSON Meet our company, Hiram. It’s Mr. and Mrs. Asterbilt. HIRAM _Shaking hands in a friendly way._ I’m glad to know any one whose friends to John and Mary. I knowed _they_ would soon get acquainted when they came here, for they’re so neighborly. _Enter Mr. Benson with house slippers on._ MR. BENSON By jinks, if it ain’t Hiram. _Exit Mrs. Benson._ HIRAM _Crossing to Benson._ Golly, John, you look like a house plant. I see right now that you’ll have to get more sunshine, or this here city life will get the best of you. How do you like the city life, anyway? Gee! but such a room! MR. BENSON The house is all right, but the life is pretty doggone dull. HIRAM Just what I told your son, Harry. The conveniences are all right, but you’re just as much out of place as a pump handle on an ice house. MR. BENSON I suppose it is the only life for those that is brought up that way. HIRAM Sure, but it’s just as hard for a farmer to get used to city ways as it is for a fish to get used to living on land. _Enter Mrs. Benson._ MRS. ASTERBILT Mrs. Benson, I think we had better be going. MRS. BENSON Oh, you musn’t go so soon—I have ordered a light lunch. MRS. ASTERBILT But we ought to be going, and then you’ll want to be visiting with your neighbor. HIRAM Don’t let me be causing you to leave, the more the merrier. I wouldn’t advise you to leave until after the lunch Mrs. Benson has prepared. She’s the finest cook round, they always calls on her to make the biscuits for the ladies’ aid doin’s at the church and picnics in the summer time. I’d advise you to stay. MR. ASTERBILT Mr. Johnson, I suppose you are taking a little vacation to get away from the monotony of the farm. It must be an awful dull place to spend one’s life in. HIRAM