“But Beriah, you’ve been expecting it every day, all along, haven’t you?”

“Well, yes; yes—­I don’t know but I have.  But anyway, the longer it’s delayed, the nearer it grows to the time when it will start—­same as every day you live brings you nearer to—­nearer—­”

“The grave?”

“Well, no—­not that exactly; but you can’t understand these things, Polly dear—­women haven’t much head for business, you know.  You make yourself perfectly comfortable, old lady, and you’ll see how we’ll trot this right along.  Why bless you, let the appropriation lag, if it wants to—­that’s no great matter—­there’s a bigger thing than that.”

“Bigger than $200,000, Beriah?”

“Bigger, child?—­why, what’s $200,000?  Pocket money!  Mere pocket money!  Look at the railroad!  Did you forget the railroad?  It ain’t many months till spring; it will be coming right along, and the railroad swimming right along behind it.  Where’ll it be by the middle of summer?  Just stop and fancy a moment—­just think a little—­don’t anything suggest itself?  Bless your heart, you dear women live right in the present all the time—­but a man, why a man lives——­

“In the future, Beriah?  But don’t we live in the future most too much, Beriah?  We do somehow seem to manage to live on next year’s crop of corn and potatoes as a general thing while this year is still dragging along, but sometimes it’s not a robust diet,—­Beriah.  But don’t look that way, dear—­don’t mind what I say.  I don’t mean to fret, I don’t mean to worry; and I don’t, once a month, do I, dear?  But when I get a little low and feel bad, I get a bit troubled and worrisome, but it don’t mean anything in the world.  It passes right away.  I know you’re doing all you can, and I don’t want to seem repining and ungrateful—­for I’m not, Beriah—­you know I’m not, don’t you?”

“Lord bless you, child, I know you are the very best little woman that ever lived—­that ever lived on the whole face of the Earth!  And I know that I would be a dog not to work for you and think for you and scheme for you with all my might.  And I’ll bring things all right yet, honey —­cheer up and don’t you fear.  The railroad——­”

“Oh, I had forgotten the railroad, dear, but when a body gets blue, a body forgets everything.  Yes, the railroad—­tell me about the railroad.”

“Aha, my girl, don’t you see?  Things ain’t so dark, are they?  Now I didn’t forget the railroad.  Now just think for a moment—­just figure up a little on the future dead moral certainties.  For instance, call this waiter St. Louis.

“And we’ll lay this fork (representing the railroad) from St. Louis to this potato, which is Slouchburg: 

“Then with this carving knife we’ll continue the railroad from Slouchburg to Doodleville, shown by the black pepper: 

“Then we run along the—­yes—­the comb—­to the tumbler that’s Brimstone: 

“Thence by the pipe to Belshazzar, which is the salt-cellar: