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Updated: April 30, 2025
"Jinnie's stayin' awful long at the jail to-day," said the woman fretfully. "Do you hear her comin', Bobbie?" "No," said Bobbie, "I've been stretchin' my ears almost to the hill to hear her. If she doesn't come soon, I'll die my stars've been gone a long time." "I wish she'd come," sighed Mrs. Grandoken. "Bend over here, Peg," entreated Bobbie, "I want to touch your eyes!"
For a full minute nothing was heard but the loud rattling in Maudlin's throat and the steady, laborious breath of the man at his feet. Sudden tears diffused the cobbler's eyes, and he leaned over and tenderly touched the damp forehead of Jinnie's friend. "He's given His angels charge over thee, boy," he murmured, just as Jinnie, leading Bobbie by the hand, walked in.
Jinnie heard, as in a hideous dream, the shrill, trilling whistle; heard the galloping of horses and saw a long black wagon draw up to the steps. When the two sullen men laid violent hold of the wheelchair, Jinnie's terrified fingers reached toward the cobbler, and the sheriff gave her hand a sharp blow.
She had come to play for him, to mimic the natural world for his pleasure. "Shall I play about the fairies?" she asked bashfully. "Yes," assented King. As on that night in his home when first she came into his life in full sway, the man now imagined he saw creeping from under the flower petals and from behind the tall trees, the tiny inhabitants of Jinnie's fairyland.
Now I've got you I'm going to take care of you, 'cause I love you just like the rest. Stand up and let me wipe your nose." "Let me see how you look, first," faltered the boy. "Where's your face?... I want to touch it!" His little hands reached and found Jinnie's shoulders.
Jinnie roused herself, but she was so weak when she tried to walk that Theodore picked her up in his arms and carried her into the shop. Lafe uttered a quick little prayer as the door opened. His glance through the window had shown him Jinnie's pale face and her dark head drooping against Mr. King's shoulder.
She was coming down the steps when King's car dashed up to the door. Her meetings with him were always unexpected and found her quite unprepared for the shock to her emotions. "I've come to take you home, Jinnie," said Theodore, jumping out. Jinnie's throat filled, and silently she allowed him to help her to the seat. They were in the flat of the town before he turned to her.
Jinnie's mind went back to the teachings of the cobbler, and the slow, sweet, painful smile intermingled with her agony. Again and again the memory of the words, "He hath given his angels charge over thee," swelled her heart to the breaking point.
"I'll talk to Maudie," said he, "but he's an onery kid; has been ever since his mother died. He don't git along with his stepma very well, and she's got such a lot of little kids of 'er own she ain't time to train no hulk of a boy like Maudlin." Pausing a moment, he went on, "Maudlin's been madder'n hell because that duffer King's been haulin' Jinnie's wood. He says "
But the one real happiness of her days lay in dropping the pennies she earned into Peg's hand. Now Peggy didn't believe in spoiling men or children, but one morning, as she tied a scarf about Jinnie's neck, she arranged the black curls with more than usual tenderness. Pausing at the door and looking back at the woman, Jinnie suddenly threw up her head in determination.
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