you

   an' queered the whole game."

   "You'll thank me for that, some day, Ingua. Aren't you glad, even now, that you have a home and shelter?"

   "I ain't tickled to death about it. Home!" with a scornful glance around the room, barren of all comforts. "A graveyard's a more cheerful place, to my notion."

   "We must try to make it pleasanter, dear. I'm going to get acquainted with Mr. Cragg and coax him to brighten things up some, and buy you some new clothes, and take better care of you."

   Ingua fell back on a stool, fairly choking twixt amazement and derision.

   "You! Coax Ol' Swallertail? Make him spend money on

    me!

   Say, if ye wasn't a stranger here, Mary Louise, I'd jes' laugh; but bein' as how yer a poor innercent, I'll only say ther' ain't no power on earth kin coax Gran'dad to do anything better than to scowl an' box my ears. You don't know him, but

    I

   do."

   "Meantime," said Mary Louise, refusing to argue the point, "here are some little things for you to hide away, and to eat whenever you please," and she took from the basket the canned goods she had bought and set them in an enticing row upon the table.

   Ingua stared at the groceries and then stared at Mary Louise. Her wan face flushed and then grew hard.

   "Ye bought them fer

    me?

   " she asked.

   "Yes; so you won't have to steal eggs to satisfy your natural hunger."

   "Well, ye kin take the truck away ag'in. An' you'd better go with it," said the girl indignantly. "We may be poor, but we ain't no beggars, an' we don't take charity from nobody."

   "But your grandfather—"

   "We'll pay our own bills an' buy our own fodder. The Craggs is jus' as good as yer folks, an' I'm a Cragg to the backbone," she cried, her eyes glinting angrily. "If we want to starve, it's none o' yer 

 Prev. P 22/134 next