Winnie winced. "Don't talk about them; I am sick and tired of hearing about the little prince. Do you know, I don't believe he is a prince at all!"
"What! Do you imagine that this story of Miss Prillwitz's is only a fabrication?"
"Perhaps so, or at least a hallucination on her part; and even if it is all true Jim may not be the boy. I wonder what proof she has of his identity, or whether she has written yet to his relatives. I mean to ask her—this very day."
But Winnie did nothing of the kind, for we were surprised on arriving at Miss Prillwitz's to find three new children sitting in the broad window-seats. One was a thin girl with crutches, whom I at once guessed must be Mary Hetterman; two chubby, freckle-faced little ones sat in the sunshine looking over a picture-book together, while Miss Prillwitz beamed upon them.
"My tears," she said, "you see I haf some more companie. Giacomo haf brought these small people to spend ze day."
Jim came in a little later, and introduced his friends. He was flushed and excited, and it presently appeared that the visit was a part of a deep-laid scheme of his own.
"I wanted you to know the Hettermans," he said, "because they are such nice children, and Rickett's Court is no place for them, for the family next door have the fever, and Mr. Grogan has the tremens, and scares them most to death. Mrs. Hetterman gets twenty dollars a month as cook now, and she says she can pay a dollar a week apiece for each of the children if she can board them where it is healthful and decent; and you young ladies were so kind as to help my mother at first, and now, as she don't need it any longer, maybe you would help the Hettermans, and then maybe Aunty would take them in. Mary is very handy, for all she's a cripple, and the babies' noise is just nothing but a pleasure, and—" here the tears stood in his eyes, and he looked at Miss Prillwitz, who was frozen stiff with astonishment, with piteous appealing—"and I would eat just as little as I could."
The good woman's voice trembled, "Take ze children to play in ze park," she said; "ze young ladies and I, we talk it some over."
Mary Hetterman tied the children's hoods on with cheerful alacrity. She evidently had high hopes, while Jim threw his arms around Miss Prillwitz—"Aunty," he said, "they deserve that you should be kind to them more than I do."
"What reason is zere that I should take them in more as all ze uzzer children in ze court?"