"I didn't write mine," she murmured faintly. "It's only about an orange peel, anyway."
"Can't you tell us, then?" encouraged Miss Billy.
"There was a man goin' up Cherry Street last night, an' he was eatin' a orange, an' droppin' the peelin' right on the sidewalk. An' I said to him 'Mister, please don't drop those on the walk.' And he didn't pay no attention to me, an' so I walked along behind him an' just picked them up myself."
Ginevra's patient little story was most touching, and Miss Billy and Francis exchanged quick glances of sympathy. Marie Jean settled the folds of her gown, and smiled. "How perfectly lovely," she remarked to no one in particular.
"Isn't it interesting?" asked Miss Billy proudly. "Frank Murphy, you come next. What have you done?"
Frank's report was brief and to the point. "There was a dead rat out in the street. It was big and smelt awful. I poked it with a stick, but it was so smelly I couldn't take it in my hands. So I brought the cat out and she et it up."
The fastidious sense of Marie Jean was much offended by the story, but she bravely accepted the custom of the Romans, and only indicated her disgust by a slight elevation of the nose, as Frank's successor was announced, and Launcelot, in a high state of excitement and a huge red necktie, took the floor.
"Our slop barrel was running over. And ma wanted to give some of it to Hennesy's chickens, and I wouldn't let her because it ud make Hennesy's yard look worse than ever. And she said it was the slop collector's fault and that Cherry Street was always neglekted. And I said I'll see to it. And I went to see the slop gentleman at the city hall and told him about the slop running over, and the germs that were just flying round loose inside, and I spoke fierce and he said he'd 'tend to it. And I said he'd better and he said he would and he did. An' we've smelled nice ever since.
"And Johanna who lives with old man Schultzsky threw tin cans into the street, and we kids waited till night an' then stuck them all along on the pickets to his fence, an' she don't do it any more. An' I asked ma not to wash me and Mike in the same water, and she said all right if I'd carry in fresh water and I did.