202
THE ROPE
—with a wink.]    Will ye have a taste?    It's real
stuff.
Luke—Yuh betcher I will! [He takes a big gulp
and hands the bottle back,]
Sweeney—[After taking a drink himself, puts
bottle on table.] I wasn't wishin' herself to see it
or I'd have asked ye sooner. [There is a pause,
during which each measures the other with his eyes.]
Luke—Say, how's the old man now?
Sweeney—[Cautiously.] Oh, the same as ivir—¦
older an' uglier, maybe.
Luke—I thought he might be in the bug-house by
this time.
Sweeney—[Hastily.] Indeed not; he's foxy to
pritind he's looney, but he's his wits with him all
the time.
Luke—[Insinuatingly.] Is he as stingy with his
coin as he used to be?
Sweeney—If he owned the ocean he wouldn't give
a fish a drink; but I doubt if he's any money left at
all. Your mother got rid of it all, I'm thinkin'.
[Luke smiles a superior, knowing smile.] He has
on'y the farm, an' that mortgaged. I've been payin'
the int'rist an' supportin' himself an' his doctor's
bills by the carpentryin' these five years past.
Luke—[With a grin.] Huh! Yuh're slow. Yuh
oughter get wise to yourself.
Sweeney—[Inquisitively.] What d'ye mean by
that?