ain't got so
much money which people think I got it."

"I never thought you did," said Morris, and Uncle Mosha glared in
response.

"But I ain't no beggar neither, y'understand," he retorted. "I got a
little something left, anyhow."

"Sure, I know," Morris agreed; "but what you have got or what you ain't
got is neither here or there. I am coming over this morning to ask you
something, a question."

Here he paused. He had not yet determined what the question would be,
and it occurred to him that, unless it were sufficiently momentous to
account for his presence on the lower East Side during the busiest hours
of a business day, Uncle Mosha would show him the door.

"Go ahead and ask it, then," Uncle Mosha broke in impatiently. "I
couldn't sit here all day."

"The fact is," Morris said slowly, and then his mind reverted to the
brass plate on the door and he at once proceeded with renewed
confidence--"the fact is I am coming over here to ask you something, a
question which a friend of mine would like to buy a property on the East
Side."

"A property," Uncle Mosha repeated. "A property is something else again.
What for a property would your friend like to buy it?"

"A fine property," Morris replied; "a property like you got it here."

"But this here property ain't for sale," Uncle Mosha said. "I got the
house here now since 1890 already, and I guess I would keep it."

"Sure, I know; that's all right," Morris went on; "but I thought, even
if you wouldn't want to sell the house, you know such a whole lot about
real estate, Mr. Kronberg, you could help us out a little."

The hard lines about Uncle Mosha's mouth relaxed into a smile.

"Well, when it comes to real estate," he said, "I ain't a fool exactly,
y'understand."

"That's what I was told," Morris continued. "A friend of mine he says to
me: 'If any one could tell you about real estate, Mosha Kronberg could.
There's a man,' he says, 'which his opinion you could trust in it
anything what he says is so. If the Astors and the Goelets would know
about East Side real estate what that feller knows--understand
me--instead of their hundreds of millions they would have thousands of
millions already.'"

Uncle Mosha fairly beamed.

"Yes, Mr. Kronberg," Morris went on, without taking breath, "he says to
me: 'You should go and see Uncle Mosha; he's a gentleman and he would
treat you right.' 'But,' I says to him, 'I ain't got no right to butt in
on your Uncle Mosha.