However, he was finally allowed to go, and, as first hints of evening were already cooling and darkening the air, the party broke up, its members setting forth, whistling, toward their several homes, though Penrod lingered with Sam.

Herman was the last to go from them.
"Well, I got git 'at stove-wood f' suppuh," he said, rising and stretching himself.

"I got git 'at lil' soap-box wagon, an' go on ovuh wheres 'at new house buil'in' on Secon' Street; pick up few shingles an' blocks layin' roun'." He went through the yard toward the alley, and, at the alley gate, remembering something, he paused and called to them.

The lot was a deep one, and they were too far away to catch his meaning.

Sam shouted, "Can't HEAR you!" and Herman replied, but still unintelligibly; then, upon Sam's repetition of "Can't HEAR you!" Herman waved his arm in farewell, implying that the matter was of little significance, and vanished.