Mrs. Perkins let her try to rub her. Some more gin and water was administered, and then she seemed easier. Peggy sat at the bottom of the bed and watched her.
"Ah!" Mrs. Perkins said, with a groan. "I dessay my days are numbered. These pains are cruel; they must mean somethin'. But if I die, there 'll be no one to miss me."
"I shall, Aunt," said Peggy honestly. "I've been thinkin' I'll be a better girl to you. And I'll tell you what I hears in Sunday School, and anythin' to make you a bit happier!"
Mrs. Perkins groaned, and shook her head.
"There's nothin' will make me happy," she said; "but there be plenty of room for improvement in you, Peg."
"Yea," said Peggy, humbly and determinedly. "I've made my mind up to do yer good, same as the servant-maid did to the leper capting. An' I'll tell yer all I hears, and you can pick out the bits that soot yer, and ease your mind like."
"I don't want ter hear religion," said Mrs. Perkins, with an indignant sniff. "If there be a God, He have treated me shameful! I won't have nothin' to do with Him!"
"God loves yer, Mrs. Creak says," said Peggy undaunted. She was still sitting at the bottom of the bed, staring at her aunt; and now her eyes took a dreamy turn. "Anyways, you ain't been mocked and whipped and crucified, same as Jesus Christ, and God loved Him ever so, teacher said so. I s'pose as how God loved us ever so, and let us come first, when the Crucifixion come along!"
"Get into bed with yer, and don't talk my 'ead off!" was the irritable comment of Mrs. Perkins.
Peggy promptly obeyed.