“How many children are there?” she 26 asked faintly. “More than the five you said you counted that first day?”
“They seemed not so many as much. That is, though I suppose in round numbers there are but five, yet each of those five is equal to at least three ordinary children.”
“Are they all boys? Huldah says the youngest wears dresses.”
“Nevertheless he is a boy. They are all unmistakably boys. I think they must have been born with boots on and,” conscious of the imprints of my shins, “hobnail boots at that. Even the youngest, a two-year old, seems to have been graduated from Home Rule.”
“I can’t bear to think of their going to bed hungry,” she said wistfully. “Think of that unnatural mother expecting them to satisfy their hunger by popcorn.”
“They didn’t though,” I assured her. 27 “I saw them stop a street vender below here and invest their nickels in hot dogs.”
“Hot dogs!” repeated Silvia in horror.
“Wienerwursts,” I hastened to interpret.
