The soul of wit

Puzzle

This little conundrum is built upon the following incident from real life:
"Dere am no circumlocation nor wasted breff 'bout dat wife of mine when she am in de humor to be brief," soliloquized Mr. Washington Johnsing when he came home a few hours late for the evening meal and found the larder as empty as his stomach.
"What time am it, and war am de cold chicking?" he asked in an introductory way as a sort of feeler.
Two questions which naturally called for two replies, but Mrs. Johnsing was not in the humor for protracted conversation, so without discontinuing the little ballad of
"The bee what gits de honey, Don't hang 'round de hive"
she merely paused to vouchsafe one brief answer, which covered both subjects, and Mr. Johnsing, who read the signs of a rising family barometer, surmised that it would be diplomatic to make himself scarce.

It was neither given nor intended by Mr. Johnsing as a conundrum, but that our readers may be en rapport with Darktown sassiety events, we present it in puzzle form for our young folks to study over, to see if they can discover the briefest possible answer to Mr. Johnsing's two queries.

Answer

References

• Loyd, Sam [1914]. in Loyd, Sam, Jr.: Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5000 Puzzles Tricks and Conundrums (in English). New York: Lamb Publishing company, page 49.