"Look-a-here boy, don't you call this a disreputable place. Some of the
best people in this town come here," said the grocery man as he held up
the cheese knife and grated his teeth as though he would like to jab it
into the youth.
"O, that's all right, they come here 'cause you trust; but you make up
what you lose by charging it to other people. Pa will make it hot for you
the last of the week. He has been looking over your bill, and comparing it
with the hired girl, and she says we haven't ever had a prune, or
a dried apple, or a raisin, or any cinnamon, or crackers and cheese out of
your store, and he says you are worse than the James brothers, and that
you used to be a three card monte man, and he will have you arrested for
highway robbery, but you can settle that with Pa. I like you, because you
are no ordinary sneak thief, you are a high-toned, gentlemanly sort of a
bilk, and wouldn't take anything you couldn't lift. O, keep your seat, and
don't get excited. It does a man good to hear the truth from one who has
got the nerve to tell it.
"But about the parrot. Ma has been away from home for a week, having a
high old time in Chicago, going to theatres and things, and while she was
gone, I guess the hired girl or somebody learned the parrot some new
things to say.
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