“Miss Finney wants you to take her home, Ike.”
“What’s the matter with her? Can’t she walk?”
“Sh-h-h-h-h! She wants to talk with you about something. It won’t hurt
you to take her home, will it?”
I ain’t no lady’s man—me; but when a lady expresses a desire to converse
with me I can’t very well renege, can I? I walks right over where Miss
Finney and Mrs. Smith are talking, and I says—
“Miss Finney, can I take you home?”
“Gracious!” says she. “Why, of course you may. Just a moment.”
She walked back to the stage to get something, and Mrs. Smith says to
me:
“That’s lovely of you. I asked Magpie to take her home, but I’m glad you
forestalled him.”
I looked back at the door, but Magpie was gone. Anyway I never shot any
man in the back, but it’s just as well that he wasn’t passing out about
that time.
We walks down the stairs and up the street.
“Lovely moon, isn’t it?” says she, and I nodded.
It was a full moon.
“I love moons; don’t you?” she asks.
“Never had enough to do with ’em to form an opinion,” says I.