ere I could do for
you."

"Aw, cut that, ma! Don't I work round on my dynamo every morning till I
go on duty? Wouldn't I look swell with an electricity book under my arm?
I'd feel like Battling John drinking tea out of an egg-shell."

"The trainin'-school's the place for you, Jimmie. If you'd only take the
dynamo over to the superintendent and show him where you're stuck he'd
help you, Jimmie. I been beggin' you so long, and if only you wasn't so
stubborn!"

"I ain't got the nerve buttin' in over there; it's for fellows who got
swell jobs already."

"There's classes for boys, too, Jimmie; the janitor told me. Just go
to-morrow and show your dynamo. It won't hurt nothin', and maybe they'll
know just what the trouble is--it's only a little thing, Jimmie--three
times in succession it worked last night, didn't it? It won't hurt to
go, Jimmie--just to go and show it."

"Nix; I ain't got the nerve. You just wait! I ain't got the trainin';
but didn't I sell my double lens the day after I got the patent? Didn't
I make that twenty-five just like battin' your eye?"

"The janitor says you was robbed in it, Jimmie."

"We should worry! Didn't we get a rockin'-chair and a string of beads
and a tool-chest out of it?"

"It ain't you worries me so much, Jimmie. Here, put your head here on
the pillow next to me, Jimmie. My heart's actin' up to-night. It ain't
you worries me you're a man like your papa was and can hit back; but
Essie--if only Essie--"

"You don't handle her right, ma; you're too easy-going with her. Since
she went on her new job she's gettin' too gay--too gay!"

"Jimmie!"

"Sure she is. Like I told her last night when she came in all hours from
dancing--if she didn't take that war-paint off her face I'd get her in a
corner and rub it off till--"

"I've begged her and begged her, Jimmie, just as hard as I ever begged
you about the dynamo, to wash her face of it. It's eatin' me,
Jimmie--eatin' me! There wasn't a girl in the store that didn't envy
that girl her complexion. Oh, Gawd, Jimmie, it ain't paint alone--it's
where it can lead to."

"She needs an old-time spankin'."

"Them girls down at the theayter where she works put them ideas in her
head. It's only of late with her, Jimmie. Wasn't she like a little baby
when I had her across from me in the notions?"

"She's gotta keep her face clean or I'll--"

"She needs somebody strong like her papa was to handle her, Jimmie.
She's stubborn in ways, like y