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Speaking to Flukey, he said, "Pick up your dog, Boy!" "And the pig from the table!" groaned Ann distractedly. Flukey mechanically stooped to obey, while Flea captured Squeaky and tucked the suckling under her arm just as Shellington opened the door to admit his guests.
"Mebbe," mumbled Flea darkly; "but 's long 's 'tain't Pappy Lon or Lem, I don't care." During the next two weeks, while Flukey was fighting with death, and the great Shellington mansion was as silent as a tomb, Scraggy Peterson was tramping back to the squatter country. When she reached Ithaca, she was almost too ill to start up the Lehigh Valley tracks toward her hut.
Suddenly he felt a twinge of dislike for the man before him, and his respect for Ann deepened. How many girls, he reasoned, would have the courage and desire thus to take in two suffering children? He rose quickly and left the room. Everett took up the argument again with Miss Shellington: "Ann, you're going very much against my wishes if you keep those children here."
"Ann," he said earnestly, "I'm not jesting, and I ask you, by your love for me, to aid me in this, the first thing of importance I have ever asked you." Miss Shellington drew reluctantly away. "I can't, I can't! My very soul revolts at the idea."
Ann Shellington, like her brother, had never before seen human misery depicted in small lives. At the mention of his dog, Flukey opened his eyes and turned his gaze upward. "Thank ye, Lady," said he, "thank ye for what ye said about Snatchet. Ain't he a pink peach of a dorg, Ma'm?" Ann inclined her head gently, glancing dubiously over the yellow pup.
Fledra Vandecar clutched at Ann's sleeve. "He's praying, Ann! He's praying!" Miss Shellington bowed her head in assent. "Poor baby, poor little dear!" Mrs. Vandecar's voice was louder than before. "Hush, hush!" breathed Ann. "Come away. He's so very ill!" "Pity pity my simplicity," murmured Floyd again, "and Lord prepare my soul a place!" Mrs.
Everett rose also, and the two men faced each other for a long moment. "And you took the case?" Horace got out at last. "Yes, I took the case," Everett replied. "And yet you knew that Ann loved them?" "I was was sure that if you both understood " The speaker's hesitation brought forth an ejaculation from Shellington. "What are we to understand?"
Your face is awfully red!... Why, Fledra, I've cautioned you many times " At the girl's apparent unconcern, Miss Shellington left the reproach unfinished. She perceived the scarlet cheeks and flashing eyes peering at her over the open book. "Is there anything the matter, Fledra?" The girl let her gaze fall. "You haven't been quarreling with Floyd?"
"Yep, he has, and when he says as how he believes like Miss Shellington, then I'll believe, too. See?" Then Flea fell into a stubborn silence. One afternoon in December, Ann and Horace sat conversing in the library. "I don't see how Mrs. Vandecar can refuse to help you get that child into school, Ann." "I don't believe she will; but Everett thinks she ought."
I always asked that Flukey might stay in Tarrytown, and that nothing would ever hurt Mr. Shellington. I never dared pray for myself, because because God had enough to do to help all the other ones, and because I never asked anything for myself till you found me. I want to stay right in the shanty with you, Pappy Lon. I hate Lem oh, how I hate him!" Lem coughed and wheezed.
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