“Be ye goin’ to tell me, or—­air ye too ’shamed on’t?” she added with a little laugh, which somewhat turned the tables on her teasing brother.

“Wa’al, I laid out to try an’ read this paper,” he said, spreading it out on his lap, “but,” resignedly, “I guess ’t ain’t no use.  Do you know what a count’fit bill is?” he asked.

“I dunno ’s I ever see one,” she said, “but I s’pose I do.  They’re agin the law, ain’t they?”

“The’s a number o’ things that’s agin the law,” remarked David dryly.

“Wa’al?” ejaculated Mrs. Bixbee after a moment of waiting.

“Wa’al,” said David, “the’ ain’t much to tell, but it’s plain I don’t git no peace till you git it out of me.  It was like this:  The young feller’s took holt everywhere else right off, but handlin’ the money bothered him consid’able at fust.  It was slow work, an’ I c’d see it myself; but he’s gettin’ the hang on’t now.  Another thing I expected he’d run up agin was count’fits.  The’ ain’t so very many on ’em round now-a-days, but the’ is now an’ then one.  He allowed to me that he was liable to get stuck at fust, an’ I reckoned he would.  But I never said nuthin’ about it, nor ast no questions until to-day; an’ this afternoon I come in to look ‘round, an’ I says to him, ’What luck have you had with your money?  Git any bad?’ I says.  ‘Wa’al,’ he says, colorin’ up a little, ‘I don’t know how many I may have took in an’ paid out agin without knowin’ it,’ he says, ‘but the’ was a couple sent back from New York out o’ that package that went down last Friday.’”

“‘What was they?’ I says.

“‘A five an’ a ten,’ he says.

“‘Where be they?’ I says.

“‘They’re in the draw there—­they’re ruther int’restin’ objects of study,’ he says, kind o’ laughin’ on the wrong side of his mouth.

“‘Countin’ ’em in the cash?’ I says, an’ with that he kind o’ reddened up agin.  ‘No, sir,’ he says, ’I charged ’em up to my own account, an’ I’ve kept ’em to compare with.’

“‘You hadn’t ought to done that,’ I says.

“’You think I ought to ‘a’ put ’em in the fire at once?’ says he.

“‘No,’ I says, ’that wa’n’t what I meant.  Why didn’t you mix ’em up with the other money, an’ let ’em go when you was payin’ out?  Anyways,’ I says, ’you charge ’em up to profit an’ loss if you’re goin’ to charge ‘em to anythin’, an’ let me have ’em,’ I says.

“’What’ll you do with ’em?’ he says to me, kind o’ shuttin’ his jaws together.

“’I’ll take care on ’em,’ I says.  ’They mayn’t be good enough to send down to New York,’ I says, ’but they’ll go around here all right—­jest as good as any other,’ I says, ’long ’s you keep ’em movin’.’”

“David Harum!” cried Polly, who, though not quite comprehending some of the technicalities of detail, was fully alive to the turpitude of the suggestion.  “I hope to gracious he didn’t think you was in earnest.  Why, s’pose they was passed around, wouldn’t somebody git stuck with ’em in the long run?  You know they would.”  Mrs. Bixbee occasionally surprised her brother with unexpected penetration, but she seldom got much recognition of it.