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Updated: June 27, 2025
Until that moment the cobbler's wife had seemed outside the charm of the beloved home circle. But to-day, ah, to-day! Jinnie's bow raced over the strings like a mad thing. To-day Peggy Grandoken became in the girl's eyes a glorified woman, a woman set apart by God Himself to bring to the home a new baby. Jinnie played and played and played, and Theodore in spirit-fancy stood beside her.
She turned back as she heard Peg's voice calling her. "You might toddle in an' bring home a bit of sausage," said the woman, indifferently, "an' five cents' worth of chopped steak." Mrs. Grandoken watched Jinnie until she turned the corner. She felt a strangling sensation in her throat.
"Mottville Corners, N. Y. "Dear Mr. Grandoken," whispered Lafe. "My girl will bring you this, and, in excuse for sending her, I will briefly state: I'm very near the grave, and she's in great danger. I want to tell you that her Uncle Jordan Morse has conquered me and will her, if she's not looked after. For her mother's sake, I ask you to take her if you can.
Grandoken, but was expecting it daily. Perhaps when two cents more were dropped into her hand, Peggy might, just for the moment, forget herself and unwittingly express some little affection for her. With this joyous anticipation the girl recounted her money, retained sufficient change for the dinner meat, and slipped the rest into her jacket pocket.
"You still care for her then?" queried Molly dully. "Yes. I know you dislike the poor child, but I thought if you knew that I well, I really love her, you might help me, Molly." It was a bitter harvest to reap after all these weeks of waiting his telling her he loved another woman and as his voice rang with devotion for Jinnie Grandoken, Molly restrained herself with difficulty.
Lafe, smoothing Jinnie's head now buried in his breast, lifted misty eyes to the young man. "My poor baby! My poor little girl!" he stammered. "She has much to stand, sir." The other man took several nervous turns around the shop. Presently he paused near the cobbler and coughed in embarrassment. "I'm interested in doing something for your niece, Mr. Grandoken," said he lamely.
Jinnie's imagination called up the loathsome thing he mentioned and terrified her to numbness. At that moment she understood what her father had written in that sealed letter to Lafe Grandoken. But she couldn't allow her mind to dwell upon his threat against herself. "What'd you mean when you said I could save my friends?" "You're fond of Mrs. Grandoken, aren't you?"
For a long time Jinnie sat crooning over and over the verses she'd learned from Lafe, and bye-and-bye she heard Peg breathing regularly and knew she slept. Then she settled herself in the chair, and sweet, mysterious dreams came to her through the storm. Lafe Grandoken, in his wheel chair, sat under the barred prison window, an open Bible on his knees.
With this desire uppermost in his mind, Jordan wended his way to the lower part of the town, passed into Paradise Road, and paused a second in front of Lafe Grandoken's shop to read the sign: "Lafe Grandoken: Cobbler of Folks' and Children's Shoes and Boots." His lips curled at the crude printing, and he went on past the remaining shanties to the entrance to the marsh.
You may be smart, but 'tain't no credit to you, 'cause you didn't make yourself. I'm tellin' you this for fear makin' so much money'll turn your head.... Here's your ten cents.... Now go along." After Jinnie had gone, Mrs. Grandoken sat down opposite her husband. "The girl looks awful tired," she offered, after a moment's silence.
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