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Updated: June 27, 2025
Mrs. Grandoken looked from her husband to Virginia. "I want to work like other folks," the girl burst forth, looking pleadingly at the shoemaker's wife. Peggy wiped her arms violently upon her apron, and there flashed across her face an inscrutable expression that Lafe had learned to read, but which frightened the newcomer. Oh, how Jinnie wanted to do something to help them both!
"How can you afford to take lessons?" The questioner read the truth in the burning blush that swept the girl's dark hair line, and her little white teeth came together. "Mr. Grandoken is not your uncle," she snapped. "He's more'n my uncle; he's a father to me, and when he comes home " "He's not coming home. Murderers don't get off so easily."
He was looking out of the window, in a far-away mood, dreaming of an active past, when Jinnie accidentally knocked a hammer from the bench. Lafe Grandoken glanced in the girl's direction. "I'm happy in spite " he murmured. Then he stopped abruptly, and his hesitation made the girl repeat: "Happy in spite?" with a rising inflection. "What does that mean, Lafe?" Lafe began to work desperately.
She not only kissed Lafe, but Bobbie, Happy Pete, and Milly Ann, too, came in for their share. Peg looked so sour, so forbidding, that Jinnie only faltered, "Much obliged, Peggy darling.... Oh, I'm so happy!" She stood directly in front of Mrs. Grandoken. "Aren't you, dear?" she besought. "We're all glad, lass," put in the cobbler.
Before Lafe's mental vision rose Jinnie's lovely face, her parted lips and self-assured smile. "But where'd she get it? It must belong to some 'un." Mrs. Grandoken shook her head. "I dunno. It's a boy. He was with a woman a bad 'un, I gather. She beat 'im until the little feller ran away to find his own folks, he says and Jinnie brought 'im home here. She says she's goin' to keep 'im."
"Gratefully yours, The cobbler put down the paper, and the rattling of it made Jinnie raise her head. "Come over here again," said the shoemaker, kindly. "Now tell me all about it." "Didn't the letter tell you?" "Some of it, yes. But tell me about yourself." Lafe Grandoken listened as the girl recounted her past life with Matty, and when at the finish she remarked, "I had to bring Milly Ann "
Once more she had surrendered to Bobbie Grandoken the best she had to give. Later, when the cobbler and his wife were crooning over their little son, Jinnie, with breaking heart, decided she would leave Bellaire at once, as Molly had asked her. She must never think of Theodore again.
"Anybody'd think to hear you folks talk that you'd made these rag tags with your toe nails," she observed dryly. "The smacking of some folks' lips over sugar they don't earn makes me tired! Laws me!... Now I'll try it on you, Jinnie," she ended. Jinnie turned around and around with slow precision as Mrs. Grandoken ascertained the correct hanging of the skirt.
Jinnie'll come back in a minute." Then the speaker shoved the girl ahead of her into the shop and stood with her arms folded, austerely silent. "I want to know what's the matter," insisted Jinnie. "You tell 'er, Peg. I just couldn't," whispered Lafe. Mrs. Grandoken drew a deep breath and ground her teeth. "You've got to go away, kid," she began tersely, dropping into a chair.
"I want to speak with you just a moment," the woman said beseechingly. "May I come in?" Without answering, Jinnie backed into the room, which action Molly took as a signal to enter. She inclined her head haughtily to the cobbler. "Would you mind if I spoke to Miss Grandoken alone?" Lafe looked to Jinnie for acquiescence. "If Jinnie'll help me to the kitchen," he replied, "you can talk here.
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