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It brings in quite a lot extry, ma says; but she wouldn't let me have some new roller skates when mine broke. She's savin' up for a chafin' dish. What's a chafin' dish? Do you know? You eat out of it, some way I mean, it cooks things ter eat; an' Bess wants one. Gussie Pennock's got one. ALL our eatin's different, 'seems so, on the West Side. Ma has dinners nights now, instead of noons.
I ain't a-goin' to let white folks' eatin's go in black folks' stomachs, that I ain't!" she said, and shook both fists up at the ceiling. "Pigs can have it first; there's some reason for pigs, but that nigger man Moses!" Her nose went up, her head went back, and she wept aloud. The work of her hands was as naught. She would die and be buried before Moses should have it!
"Mamma. There is to be a picnic to-morrow, and you are to go along with us. Aren't you glad?" "Hm! Hm! I reckon I is. All dem cakes an' pies an' good eatin's, an' I gwine have some fo' dey gits mashed up an' soft, an' I gwine wait on de ladies and gent'mans. Ain't dat fine?" She gave a twist to her towel and shook it out with a snap. Then she was overtaken by a sudden fear.
She had heard a secret that not even Myra's mother knew she felt intuitively that Myra intended her to keep silent. She did not dare to speak again, fearing the woman above was not asleep. But Myra, with less fear, resumed, "'Taint no hopin' the brat will live, and if he does he'll get his eatin's alright. What brats don't?
"Get off my back, Tess," ordered Skinner, trying to loosen her fingers from his hair. "I air tired, Brat, and there be nettin' to-night. Ye air goin' to Mis' Longman's till we get back." "Won't get off till ye kisses me square on the bill, Daddy," replied the girl softly, "square where I does my eatin's."
"I had a pickle and Peter had a cream puff she forgot to eat last night. I was awful 'fraid it might give him the tummy ache because cream puffs are mighty poor breakfast eatin's, 'specially when they are left-overs, but Peter has powerful tough insides. I believe he can eat almost anything." "And how about you? Doesn't a pickle for breakfast make you feel kind of queer?"
"Oh, that was too much work, though it's lovely of you!" protested Grace. "We expected to cook our own meal," added Mollie. "You will get us into bad habits." "Eatin's the best habit I know of!" chuckled the care-taker. "I've been acquirin' it for a good many years and it hasn't hurt me yet. I expect to keep right on with it, too. I hope you didn't lose your appetites on the way."
"And 'tain't my business to tell other people how cracky some of their doin's look to onlookers. But it beat me that this heah kind o' dinner is a goin' to be give white folks in Mars Judge Gault's house. Ain't never seen such eatin's anywhere as ladies and gent'men have sot down to in his day, and to think what Miss Gibbie is agoin' to do to-night is enough to make him grunt in glory. That 'tis.
"Yer coffee'll be ready quicker'n scat, dear," said the girl. "Flop on my bed an' stretch out a minute. Tessibel'll get her daddy's breakfast." Five minutes later she had fried the fish and made the coffee. "I air goin' to give Daddy his eatin's first, Andy," she called up through the hole in the ceiling. "All right; sure, do, kid," assented the dwarf.
"You get your sleepins, an' no one cares whether you get your eatin's or not. What's your name?" "Dougherty Mike Dougherty, Clark street, south of Van Buren!" "I guess you must be French," Jimmie grinned. "You've guessed it. Now, what's your name, and what are you boys doin' here with this old sky-ship?" "I'll tell you all about it when we get back to the hotel," Jimmie replied.
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