"What do you do then?"
"I talk to 'im, and tell 'im how sorry mother'd ha' been, and how sorry He is," reverently; "and then he soon gets right again, and says he's 'good now.'"
One day when Meg went she found Cherry with an old hat on, and Dickie also with some apology for walking things.
"Are you going out, dear?" she asked, surprised, for Cherry's aversion to leave her room had been so great.
"We're goin' hopping," answered the child. "Father's goin' to take us; and I think it 'ull be the best thing for Dickie. He'll be able to run out in the air, and so—"
She placed in Meg's hand a pawn-ticket, as if she would perfectly understand.
"What is this, dear?"
"That's the blanket. I don't know no one as would keep it for us, and so I put it there. Here's the money, and you can get it out for me, if you will, when we come back. I'd ha' come to you about it, only I didn't rightly know where you lived."
It did not occur to Meg to explain where her home was at the moment, though afterwards it cost her many a pang that she had not done so. She was busy thinking about the blanket; and just as she had promised to do as Cherry wished about the pawn-ticket, Cherry's father came up the stairs and entered the room.
It was the first time Meg had met him, and he stared in surprise at such a sweet vision in that desolate place.