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Inside, all was plain and homely, but clean and in order. The excitement into which Pinky had been thrown was nearly over by this time. "You've done me a good turn, Norah," she said as the door closed upon them, "and I'll not soon forget you." "Ugh!" ejaculated Norah as she looked into Pinky's bruised face; "Sal's hit you square in the eye; it'll be black as y'r boot by morning.
"Come," she said, "the air is too close for you here;" and with the assistance of the girl who had joined them, she steadied Flora down stairs. "Doctored a little too high," whispered Miss Peter, with her mouth close to Pinky's ear. "All right," Pinky whispered back; "they know how to do it." At the foot of the stairs Pinky said, "You take her out through the yard, while I pay for the oysters.
Once you had the code key they translated themselves simply enough into such homely items as Hosey's fishing tackle, canvas curtains for Ted's sleeping porch, slip covers for Pinky's room, black net dress, sun-parlour valance. The contents of those boxes formed a commentary on normal American household life as lived by Mr. and Mrs. Hosea C. Brewster, of Winnebago, Wisconsin.
That's right I'll leave it to any fellow here if that ain't right!" he wound up, forgetting in his enthusiasm to be grammatical. It was an unfortunate simile to be making and Pinky should have known better, for at Pinky's last words the old major's mild eye widened and, expanding himself, he brought his chair legs down to the floor with a thump.
Andy obeyed, spreading out his little hands, and catching the grateful warmth, every now and then looking up into Pinky's face, and trying with a shrewder insight than is usually given to a child of his age to read the character and purposes it half concealed and half made known. "Now, Andy," said Pinky, in a mild but very decided way "your name's Andy?"
And on the way he passed a place where there were a lot of dried leaves, and he thought to himself: "I'll fill one of the stockings with dried leaves and take them home. They will make a good bed for Baby Pinky's doll," and so he did fill one of the big stockings with leaves.
On the next morning the poor old woman was found dead in her room, and those who prepared her for burial said that she was wasted to a skeleton. She had, in fact, starved herself in her infatuation, spending day after day in policies what she should have spent for food. Pinky's strange remark was but too true.
Bray, thrown off her guard by Pinky's last assertion. "Enough for me to put this and that together and make it nearly all out," answered Pinky, with great coolness. "I was close after the game when I got caught myself. But I'm on the track once more, and don't mean to be thrown off. A link or two in the chain of evidence touching the parentage of this child, and I am all right.
Bray listened, but no sound of feet from the stairs or entries, no opening or shutting of doors, broke the silence that reigned through the house. "Pinky's getting too low down drinks too much; can't count on her any more." Mrs. Bray went on talking to herself. "No rest; no quiet; never satisfied; for ever knocking round, and for ever getting the worst of it.
After farther consultation it was decided that Pinky should move at once from her present lodgings to the room in Grubb's court, and get, if possible, possession of the baby that very night. The moving was easily accomplished after the room was secured. Two small bundles of clothing constituted Pinky's entire effects; and taking these, the two girls went quietly out, leaving a week's rent unpaid.
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