Sis, you don't happen to have a quarter 'bout you, do you?"

The peculiar persuasiveness of Phineas' voice when he threw out these
financial suggestions, was very insidious. In some subtle way he made
the favor all on the side of the recipient; he gave the donor, as it
were, a chance to acquire merit.

But Myrtella wore the armor of experience. "No, I ain't!" she said,
taking a firmer grasp on her bag. "I'm payin' the grocery man now, and
buyin' clothes for Chick. What good does it do? I no more than git his
hide covered than you go and sell the clothes offen his back. When are
you goin' to git a job?"

"Well, you might say I had one now. Leastwise I'm a followin'
Scriptures and bearin' one another's burdens. Jires, the flagman, over
to the Junction has been laid up with rheumatism and he don't want the
boss to know it. He sets in his box and hires me to go out and flag
the trains like he tells me to."

"How many trains a day?"

"Two ups, three downs and a couple of freights."

"Should think you'd die of the exertion. How much do you get?"

"Oh, it ain't so much. But I ain't a ambitious man. What's the use of
me a-slavin' and a-hordin' when I ain't got a child to leave it to? If
Claude had a lived, or McKinley, I might 'a' had somethin' to work
for."