“You want my hoos?” inquired Lenny, pitifully.
“Yes, so bad! I have got no shoes.”
“You dot no hoos?”
“No.”
“Well, den, me div you mine. Tate off! tate off! Me dot more hoos home.”
The girl took them off. And this must be said in excuse for her, that she was acting under the orders and under the eyes of her tyrannical and unscrupulous uncles.
“Now put on you feet! Put on! put on!” insisted Lenny, stooping over and looking at Meg’s sturdy naked limbs. “But my hoos too ittle for you feet. You feet so bid,” he added, in astonishment, at the size of Meg’s “understanding.”
“Never mind, I can change ’em for a bigger pair,” answered the girl.
Before Lenny could reply again, he was accosted by the beldam, who held him on her lap and who had got possession of his elegant little white satin hat, with its plume of white marabout feathers fastened with a cluster of diamonds.
“And may I have this, my pretty, pretty bird?” she asked, holding it up to view.