Woncha, please? Ma, make D. tell me the rest
of it."
Huck-uh! Dassant. 'T wouldn't be right. Like's not he won't put
anythin' in my stockin' now fer what I did tell."
"How'll he know?"
"How'll he know? Easy enough. He goes around all the houses
evenings now to see how the young ones act, an' if he finds they're
sassy, an' don't mind their Ma when she tells them to leave the
cat alone, an' if they whine: 'I don' want to go out an' cut the
kindlin'. Why cain't D. do it ?' then he puts potatoes an' lumps o'
coal in their stockin's. Oh, he'll be here, course o' the evenin'."
"D' you s'pose he's round here now?" Eddie got a little closer to
his brother.
"I wouldn't wonder. Yes, sir. There he goes now. Sure's you're
alive."
"Where?"
"Right over yan. Aw, you don't look. See? There he is. Aw!
you're too slow. Didn't you see him? Now the next time I tell you
- Look, look! There! He run right acrost the floor an' into the
closet. Plain 's day. didn't you see him? You saw him, mother?"
Mrs. Allgire nodded her head. She was busy counting the stitches
in a nubia she was knitting for old Aunt Pashy, Roebuck.
"W'y, you couldn't help but see him. didn't you take notice to his
white whiskers ?"
"Ye-es," said the child, slowly, with the wide-open stare of
hypnosis.
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