“Don’t—please don’t! I can’t bear it when you don’t half know what it means.”
“When I don’t know what it means! Why, Patty!” exclaimed Margaret.
“Yes. It’s Sam. He learned it to her.”
“Well?” Margaret’s eyes were still puzzled.
“He likes it. He wants her ter be twelve, ye know,” explained Patty with an effort. Then, as she saw her meaning was still not clear, she added miserably:
“She can work then—in the mills.”
“In the mills—at twelve years old!”
“That’s the age, ye know, when they can git their papers—that is, if it’s summer—vacation time: an’ they looks out that ’tis summer, most generally, when they does gits ’em. After that it don’t count; they jest works, lots of ’em, summer or winter, school or no school.”
“The age! Do you mean that they let mere children, twelve years old, work in those mills?”
For a moment Patty stared silently. Then she shook her head.