Page:Harvey O'Higgins--Silent Sam and other stories.djvu/230

218 great song an' dance he 's got about your uncle."

"Aw, that 's all hot air," Barney replied. "There 's nothin' but kicks in our fam'ly. Did n't you ever hear Tim on the wrongs of Ireland? Th' ol' man ain't one-two-three with him."

She felt that she was involved in relations with a family that she did not understand. Having a Hebraic respect for parents, she was sorry for the father, but she saw that Barney considered him amusing, and she mistook this amusement for contempt.

"Well, it 's a crime to tease Tim," he confessed to her, over their lemonade. "It 's stealin' milk from a baby—but he'll make himself sick with this Dry Dime Dolan bus'ness if some one don't stop him."

"I thought you said there was money in politics."

"Not fer Tim. They 're just usin' him fer a spellbinder. They put him up to talk the wrongs of Ireland so 's you won't notice wrongs nearer home. They 're a lot o' grafters, an' he does the grindin' fer them. He might 's well be capper to a con game."

"That 's a swell way to talk about your own brother."

"Oh, well," he laughed, "it's all in the fam'ly. How 're you goin' to cotton to me fer a brother-in-law?"

"Me? I don't know as I want the job."

"I 'll take mine—unless you got a better one to gi' me."