Ever since the eventful morning when Carl had neglected the Big Gray for a stolen hour with Jennie, Cully had busied himself in devising ways of making the Swede's life miserable¹. With a boy's keen insight, he had discovered enough to convince him that Carl was “dead mashed² on Jennie,” as he put it, but whether “for keeps” or not he had not yet determined³. He had already enriched his songs with certain tender allusions⁴ to their present frame of mind and their future state of happiness. “Where was Moses when the light went out!” and “Little Annie Rooney” had undergone so subtle a change when sung at the top of Mr. James Finnegan's voice that while the original warp⁵ and woof of those very popular melodies were entirely⁶ unrecognizable to any but the persons interested, to them they were as gall⁷ and wormwood. This was Cully's invariable way of expressing his opinions on current affairs. He would sit on the front-board of his cart,—the Big Gray stumbling over the stones as he walked, the reins⁸ lying loose,—and fill the air with details of events passing in the village, with all the gusto of a variety actor. The impending⁹ strike at the brewery¹⁰ had been made the basis of a paraphrase¹¹ of “Johnnie, get your gun;” and even McGaw's red head had come in for its share of abuse to the air of “Fire, boys, fire!” So for a time this new development of tenderness on the part of Carl for Jennie served to ring the changes on “Moses” and “Annie Rooney.”

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