"No."
The little girl's face changed. Tears gathered in her eyes, and she sprang to her feet.
"I be mortal hungry, but I can't move dad; he be taken bad, and he have laid there for hours. Do 'ee try and wake of him up, will yer?"
Dawn willingly agreed to try. He took hold of him by the shoulder and shouted in his ear; the man groaned and moved his head, but he did not seem able to raise himself.
"I think he wants a doctor," he said at length. "Shall I fetch my dad to him?"
"No," said the little girl quickly; "he don't want no doctors nor gents, 'tis his drink: he will have it, and 'tis no good my tryin' to keep him off it. Mother didn't know as 'twould be so awful hard!"
Such a sad look came into her dark eyes that Christina moved nearer her. In a few moments both little girls were talking confidentially together. The child's name was Susy, she told Christina, her father was a hawker, and her mother had died only a few months before, from a blow her husband gave her when he was the worse for drink.
"We has no home," Susy said; "we goes all over the country. Dad is very rough at times, but when he's off the drink he's awful kind. It's a deal better to have him stupid like this than when he knocks me about. I s'pect I shall go like mother did. I've been to 'ospital twice, but 'e don't mean nothin' by it!"
Christina was shocked and terrified.
Susy added: