"Got to clean these fish if we're expectin'
to have 'em for dinner,--or lunch, as you fellers call it. I'll
bet your grandfather never called it lunch. And as for him callin'
supper DINNER,--why, by crickey, he NEVER got drunk enough for
that."
"More than that," said the young man calmly, "he never saw a cigarette,
or a telephone, or a Ford, or a safety-razor,--or a lot of other
things that have sprung up since he cashed in his checks. To be
sure, he did see a few things I've never seen,--such as clay-pipes,
canal boats, horse-hair sofas, top-boots and rag-carpets,--and he
probably saw Abraham Lincoln,--but, for all that, I'd rather be
where I am today than where he is,--and I'm not saying he isn't in
heaven, either."
The older man's eyes twinkled. "I don't think he's any nearer heaven
than he was forty years ago,--and he's been dead just about that
long. He wasn't what you'd call a far-seeing man,--and you've got
to look a long ways ahead if you want to see heaven. Your grandma's
in heaven all right,--and I'll bet she was the most surprised mortal
that ever got inside the pearly gates if she found him there ahead
of her. Like as not she would have backed out, thinking she'd got
into the wrong place by mistake. And if he IS up there, I bet he's
making the place an everlastin' hell for her. Yep, your grandpa was
about as mean as they make 'em.
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