interrupted; "and what is going to
hinder him changing his mind on this other proposition, Mawruss? You
could take it from me, Mawruss, when the time comes he should pay up,
understand me, it'll be a case of _nix wissen_--and don't you forget
it."

Morris shrugged impatiently.

"_Nu_, Abe," he said; "what could we do? Once in a while we couldn't
help ourselves, y'understand. Should we let this poor greenhorn be sent
back to Russland, which he ain't got a relative in the world, understand
me, except his cousin, which he is just as poor as Kovalenko?"

"That's all right, Mawruss," Abe declared. "I ain't kicking we shouldn't
help the feller. All I am saying is there's lots of our people which
they got more dollars as we got dimes. Take Moses M. Steuermann, for
instance; there's a feller which he is such a big charity feller,
understand me, why shouldn't he help Kovalenko?"

"Well, in the first place, no one tells him about it, Abe," Morris said,
"and in the second place----"

"But why don't we tell him about it, Mawruss?" Abe interrupted. "Why
don't you go down to see him, Mawruss, and tell him all about it?"

"Me go down to see him, Abe!" Morris cried. "Why, the feller is a
multimillionaire. With such people like that I couldn't open my mouth at
all. Why don't you go down to see him?"

"Why should I go down?" Abe asked. "You are the lodge brother here,
Mawruss--ain't it? You are the one which you are always sitting up till
all hours of the night making motions. I couldn't make a motion to save
my life, Mawruss, and you know it."

"Sure, I know," Morris protested; "but lodge meetings is something else
again. A feller could talk at a lodge meeting--and what is it? A couple
young lawyers which they couldn't even pay their laundry bills,
y'understand, and a dozen other fellers, insurance brokers _oder_ cigar
dealers, and most of 'em old-timers at that--why should I be afraid to
say a little something to 'em? But with a feller like Moses M.
Steuermann, which his folks was bankers in Frankfort-on-the-Main when
Carnegie and Vanderbilt and all them other _goyim_ was new beginners
yet, Abe--that's a different proposition entirely."

Abe nodded and remained silent for a few minutes.

"Might Felix Geigermann would go down and see him, Mawruss," he
suggested finally. "It wouldn't do no harm we should ring him up
anyhow."

"Go as far as you like, Abe," Morris said, and Abe started immediately
for the telephone.

"I spo