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"Well, we got enough that papa don't have to work any more," asserted Mama Schnitt with proper pride and a glance at Flora Kraus; "but he gets lonesome. That's why we make him come down to Coney to-day and enjoy himself. He was with Louis Ersten thirty-seven years." A wave of homesickness swept over Heinrich.
It rode on wooden horses; on wobbling camels; in whirling tubs; on iron-billowed oceans; down trestled mountains; through painted caves on everything which had rollers, or runners, or supporting arms. It withstood shocks and bumps and dislocations and dizziness and it ran squarely into Heinrich Schnitt!
"Then that is good," gruffly assented Ersten with a trace of a sarcastic snarl. "Heinrich Schnitt," remarked Johnny. That name was an open sesame. Louis Ersten stopped immediately with his coat half-off. "So-o-o!" he ejaculated, surprised into a German exclamation that he had long since deliberately laid aside. "What is it about Heinrich?" "I saw him at Coney Island last night.
Schnitt about the light in the workroom when I was in," observed Constance, "but he told me the same thing, in his enjoyable German way, and he seemed almost angry about it." "That's the extent of his lease," guessed Johnny shrewdly. "They're trying to get it away from him." "I wonder why," speculated Constance. "It's as simple as spending money," Johnny announced.
Three tables, placed end to end at the rail of a Shoot-the-Chutes lake, were required to accommodate Heinrich Schnitt's party. First, there was Heinrich himself, white as wax and stoop-shouldered and extremely clean. At the other end of the table sat Mama Schnitt, who bulged, and always had butter on her thumb.
"I do that much," he agreed. "Good!" approved Johnny. "You want to be careful what you say, though, for Ersten is stubborn." "He is stubborn like a mule," Schnitt pointed out with sober gravity. "You must say you have come back to work in that place." "I'll never do it!" indignantly declared Heinrich, his face lengthening. "Certainly not," agreed Johnny hurriedly.
"What is it?" exploded the shocked Ersten. "You say he says he will come back to work in this place, but he won't do it! That is foolishness!" "No, it isn't," insisted Johnny. "Now listen carefully. Schnitt says: 'I have come back to work. You say: 'In this place? Schnitt says: 'Yes. Then you tell him that he must take a month to rest up his eyes."
"I take it easy in my old days," he stoutly maintained, but with such inward distress that, without a protest, he allowed the waiter to remove his half-emptied glass of beer. "I'm glad you can take it easy," declared Constance, "but Ersten's customers will miss you very much and I am sure Ersten will, too." "We worked together thirty-seven years," said Schnitt wistfully.
Ersten listened carefully with frowns at some parts. "Well, I try it," he dubiously promised. They were in front of Schoppenvoll's now; and Johnny, noting Ersten's fretfulness, proved himself a keen student of psychology by suggesting: "I'm thirsty for that special drink of yours, Ersten; but suppose we put it off till after I've brought Schnitt."
While Heinrich Schnitt was back in the cutting room, carefully selecting every coat in the shop to take home with him, Ersten drew Johnny near the door. "I fool him!" he announced with grinning cuteness. "I move right away. You get my lease for the best price what that smart-Aleck Lofty offered me. And another word: Whenever you want a favor you come to me!"
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