"Oh, Motheth!"
CHAPTER IX
HANNAH'S PINK DRESS
Summer came, and the Mulvaneys prospered. Their garden grew and the neglected fruit-trees flourished. Mr. Hodgkins gave Stubbins two pigs, and the twins were given a flock of hens, whereupon Chinky earned some money, bought two turkeys, and by the time three of the hens were ready to set, his turkeys did the same thing; and the curious part of it is that each one of the eggs hatched, and every little chicken and little turkey lived.
Often when Chinky was tired of weeding the garden or hoeing corn, he sat upon the fence and counted the money he hoped to possess in the autumn when he took his turkeys to market. If his mother saw him wasting his time, he was obliged to continue his thinking while he worked.
"Ma's getting so she won't let a feller stop to wink," Johnnie grumbled one morning, when he was Chairman of the Committee on Potato Bugs.
"She's a regular general," added Chinky, hoeing corn with all his might, "and you young ones'll get cured of being so lazy."
"Lazy, is it?" retorted Mike. "You go look at the front yard, mister, and say lazy if you dare, and you ain't afraid of getting your nose punched."
"That's what," agreed Johnnie, "the minute we get home from school, it's 'have you done this,' and 'have you done that,' and 'start your boots!'"
"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Johnnie Mulvaney!" began Hannah, but she stopped for a minute because seeing her open mouth, Mike threw a potato bug into the cavern.