Page:Frank Stockton - Rudder Grange.djvu/196

Rh a-goin' to take a slight stroll outside, this salu-brious evenin'.'

"'Do you think,' says she, 'that the United States Bank would be open this time of day?'

"'Oh, no,' says Jone, 'the banks all close at three o'clock. It's a good deal after that now.'

"'But if I told the officers who I was, wouldn't that make a difference?' says she. 'Wouldn't they go down an' open the bank?'

"'Not much,' says Jone, givin' a pull which brought me right up to the top o' the wall an' almost clean down the other side with one jerk. 'I never knowed no officers that would do that. But,' says he, a kind o' shuttin' his eyes so that she wouldn't see he was lyin', 'we'll talk about that when we come back.'

"'If you see that team of little oxen,' says the big man, 'send 'em round to the front gate.'

"'All right,' says Jone; an' he let me down the outside of the wall as if I had been a bag o' horse-feed.

"'But if the bank isn't open you can't pay for it when it does come,' we heard the old lady a-sayin' as we hurried off.

"We didn't lose no time a-goin' down to that station, an' it's lucky we didn't, for a train for the city was comin' jus' as we got there, an' we jumped aboard, without havin' no time to buy tickets. There wasn't many people in our car, an' we got a seat together.

"'Now, then,' says Jone, as the cars went a-buzzin' along, 'I feel as if I was really on a bridal trip, which I mus' say I didn't at that there asylum.'

"An' then I said: 'I should think not,' an' we