The old man went on to explain in detail: "Bill was the first of the Shoffers, and he was a common man, but his wife was Lady, a great lady. Before the scarlet plague, she was the wife of Van Worden, who was chairman of the Council of Industrial Bodies and one of the many presidents who have ruled America. He was worth a billion eight hundred million dollars; and a dollar is a coin like the one you carry in your purse, Edwin. Then the scarlet plague came, and his wife, Bill's wife, became the first of the Shoffers, and he used to beat her, too. I saw it myself."
Ho-Ho was lying on his stomach, idly digging his toes in the sand, but he cried out and began to investigate. He examined his toenail first, then the hole he had dug with it. The other two boys joined him, and they all quickly dug through the sand with their hands until they uncovered three skeletons. Two of them were adults, and the third was an underdeveloped child. The old man shifted on the ground and studied what they had found.
"They're plague victims," he announced. "That's how they've been dying in recent days. They must have been a family escaping the infection and dying here on Cliff House Beach. They… What are you doing, Edwin?"
The old man asked the question in a tone of sudden confusion as Edwin began tapping the teeth on one of the skulls with the back of his hunting knife, prying them out of the jaws.
"I'll string them together," Edwin replied.
The three boys worked hard on the necklace, and the sounds of hammering and tapping rose, as Grandfather chattered on without anyone noticing.
"You are truly savages. You have already begun to wear human teeth, and in another generation, you will begin to pierce your noses and ears and wear jewelry of bone and shell. I know this. The human race is doomed to sink further and further into primitiveness before it begins again its bloody ascent toward civilization. When we become too numerous and feel we need space, we will kill each other. I think that after that, you will wear the tufts of human hair on your waists, just as you, Edwin, my kindest grandson, have already begun to wear that hateful pig's tail. Throw it away, Edwin! Throw it away, my boy!"
"What a raving old man he is," remarked Her-lip, and when they had all the teeth out, they began to try to divide them equally among themselves.