"I can't 'elp thinking about one thing, though," interpolated Mr. Boyle. "Such a funny thing: Right through——"
"It must have been an awful moment," I hazarded, "when you came to your senses and looked about and saw the—the awfulness of it. What did you do?"
"I don't remember, not clearly," responded Mr. Boyle.... "I know I laughed. It seemed so queer for anything to rip right through a person's trouser-leg and not go near 'is sock."
XXIV
MORE OF PRUDENCE
Prudence and midday post arrived together at Baffin's washhouse on the day appointed for her second stance.
"Oo-er, Mr. Baffin," was her greeting: "I got your letters. Gimme the stamps, wown't you? Me an' my friend we allus c'lect stamps. We ain't gointer stop till we got ten thousand, and then we're gointer make a bonfire when my mother's out. 'Ere, an' I ain't bin 'avin' 'arf a lark with your postman, Mr. Baffin. Oo, an' the conductor on the bus what I come by, 'e wasn't 'arf drunk, I tell you. I was frightened, I was, 'cos my father useder git drunk, an' once 'e bit my mother. 'E was a bad man, my father, an' they made 'im go out an' be a soldier in Egypt, an' 'e got the fever in 'is 'ead, an' we got a picture of 'im at 'ome before 'e was buried, an' you ought to see the funny black man a-settin' alongside of 'im. 'Ere, I'm all in a knot at the back, Mr. Baffin: arst your friend to undo me. An' don't you foget to keep them stamps, an' I spoge it's the chin agen, an' I 'ope you've remembered the muffins!"
"Yes," responded Baffin, "I remembered to get the muffins, and I've also remembered to get an empty flour-sack. Know what that's for?"
Prudence shook her head—gravely, wonderingly.
"To smother up tiresome girls in that will wriggle and will talk," explained Baffin.