fore, or that maybe his scheme ain't really as
good as he first thought it was. Why don't he think of them things?
Because he ain't got no imagination! The imaginative feller is beat
from the start. He keeps thinkin' from every possible angle, what
might happen to him if he _fails_ and, by the time he gets that all
figured out, his idea is cold and his enthusiasm for it has drowned in
the sea of possibilities his roamin' mind has created! The feller
which said, 'look before you leap!' might of been clever, but I bet he
thought a five-dollar bill was as big as they made 'em till he went to
his grave! If I'd had imagination, I'd never of come to New York and
made good. I'd of been afraid the town was too big for me. Now this
feller Simmons, I'll betcha, is simply sufferin' from a case of too
much imagination. He must have _somethin'_ in his head or he couldn't
even keep books. It takes brains to balance accounts, the same as it
takes money to pay 'em. Am I right?"

"What d'ye say, if we go to the movies?" I says.

Alex gets up in disgust.

"Is that all the interest I'm gettin' here?" he asks.

"This ain't no bank!" I tells him.

"Be still!" says the wife. "I heard every word you said, Alex dear. I
think you're horribly interestin'. But I still claim Simmons is a
fat-head whose butcher bill gives him trouble every month! He never
takes that poor wife of his nowheres, but a walk past the Fifth Avenue
Library, and she don't know if they have dancin' or swimmin' in
cabarets. He's always drawin' things on pieces of paper, and he sits
up half the night inventin' what-nots that would be all right, if they
wasn't useless."

"Yes," says Alex, "and some day he'll hit on somethin' that'll prob'ly
make him famous!"

"I wanna see Beryldine Nearer in 'The Vaccinated Vampire'," I says,
reachin' for my hat. "I seen her last week in 'Almost A Fiend' and she
was a knockout!"

"Shut up!" says the wife. "What was you sayin', again, Alex?"

"I says it's the dreamer which has made the world what it is to-day,"
he goes on, strikin' a pose. "He _thinks_ of somethin' and the
practical feller comes along and makes money out of it. Take--"

"They ain't no man can keep me from the movies!" I butts in. "I ain't
gonna be late and only see half of this picture. I done that too
often! You and Alice can fight it out amongst yourselves if--"

"All right!" says the wife. "Come on, we'll all go. I admit freely
I'm crazy