ice little wife of his,--Jim smiled grimly as he repeated the
condescending phrase,--that he knew they were having a mighty hard time
of it. Sixty dollars a month was not enough for a single man to live on
decently, much less a married one; and the way in which Allison had been
brought up made it harder. He didn't mean to criticize Allison's
father--he didn't believe in criticizing the dead--but he certainly
should not bring up _his_ son in such a way that he couldn't make a
living for himself if necessary. You never could tell what was going to
happen in this world; Allison wasn't the first gay young fellow who had
grown up not expecting ever to have to do a day's work, and then all of
a sudden had found himself glad to get almost any sort of a job. Well,
as he said, he was sorry for Allison, and ready to help him out a
little. He meant to see to it that Allison got something out of this
brake of his--a couple of hundred dollars, perhaps; of course, two
hundred dollars wasn't a great deal; it wouldn't mean much to
him--Billings--but it would probably mean considerable to Allison.

"What did Mr. Allison say?" the postmaster asked.

"Never changed face. Set there starin' at Billings with those darned
cool eyes o' his that look's if they'd never blink 'f a cannon went off
under his very nose--waited till Billings got good and done, 'n' then
said with that high 'n' mighty air of his, f'r all the world's if he was
speakin' to some poor, half-witted Swede: 'Two hundred dollars doesn't
mean as much to me as you think, Mr. Billings.' Then he stopped a
minute, 'n' went on in a little diff'rent tone, 'You needn't concern
yourself any further about me and my troubles'--'n' that had very much
the sound of 'I'll make kindling-wood of you if you do!' Then he looks
at his watch. 'I've given you all the time I can spare,' says he; and
with that he swings around 'n' begins looking over some papers on his
desk. Billings reddened up a little--coughed 'n' wriggled around in his
chair, 'n' tried to get up courage to say somethin' more--but he simply
didn't _darst_. He went off finally lookin' sort o' cheap. Mist'
Allison never give him another glance, no more'n 's if he was that dog
o' yours."

The postmaster was silent for a minute or two. Then he turned to Jim.
"I'm not particularly sorry to see Billings get left," he said. "Still,
it might be just as well for Mr. Allison if he'd have kept on the right
side of Billings from the start.