“But we wouldn’t got to go into the building business, Abe,” Morris protested.  “All we got to do is to put down eight thousand dollars for the lot.  Then the I. O. M. A. makes us a building loan of twenty-five thousand dollars.  Rashkin’s got plans and specifications drawn by Pinsky & Gubin, a first-class, A Number One archy-teck concern, for which he wouldn’t charge us nothing, and then, Abe——­”

He paused to fix Abe’s attention before finishing his explanation.

“And then, Abe,” he continued, “we hire my Minnie’s brother, Ferdy, what knows the building business from A to Z, to build it the house for us.  All we would got to do is to put up the four thousand apiece, Abe, and when the house is finished Rashkin says we could sell it like a flash.”

“I never sold a flash, Mawruss,” Abe said; “and, anyhow, Mawruss, while I ain’t saying nothing about your Minnie’s family, y’understand, if I would got to go into a deal with a horse-thief like Ferdy Rothschild, y’understand, I would take my money first and deposit it for safety with some of them fellers up in Sing Sing.  Such a show I should have of getting it back, Mawruss.”

“Lookyhere, Abe,” Morris said, “before you would make some cracks about my Minnie’s family, how about your Rosie’s brother, the one what——­”

“S’all right, Mawruss,” Abe broke in.  “I ain’t saying my wife’s brother is so much, neither.  This is the way I feel about a feller’s wife’s brother:  If he got a little money then he treats you like a dawg, Mawruss, and if he’s broke, y’understand, then your wife gives him all your cigars and ties, and if you should happen to have the same size neck, Mawruss, then all your life you are buying collars and shirts for two.  No, Mawruss, I ain’t got no confidence in anybody’s wife’s brother, especially, Mawruss, if a feller should make it a dirty failure like Ferdy Rothschild did and then takes all the money and blows it in on the horse-races.”

“That’s from old times already,” Morris protested.  “To-day he’s a decent, hard-working feller, Abe, and for two years he’s been working for the Rheingold Building and Construction Company.  What he don’t know about putting up tenement houses, Abe, ain’t worth knowing.”

“And what I don’t know about putting up tenement houses, Mawruss,” Abe said, “would fill one of them Carnegie Libraries, Mawruss; and also, furthermore, Mawruss, I don’t want to know nothing about it, neither.  And also, Mawruss, if you should stand there and talk to me all day it wouldn’t make no difference.  If you want to build tenement houses, Mawruss, you got my permission; but you could leave me out.  I got my own troubles with cloaks.”

Morris rose.

“All right, Abe,” he said.  “I give you your chance, Abe, and you wouldn’t take it.”

“What d’ye mean, Mawruss?” Abe asked.

“I mean, Abe, that I will go into this alone by myself, and only one thing I beg of you, Abe:  don’t come to me in six months’ time and claim that I wouldn’t let you in on a good thing.  I have done my best.”