“No, sir; he’s not any relation of mine. He’s a tramp.”
“And what are you?”
“Something like one now, sir, but I wasn’t always.”
“What were you?”
“Not much, sir. I didn’t do anything till just lately.”
He could not bear at the moment to talk of his beloved dead. He felt as if the old gentleman would be rude to them.
“Is the infant there your sister?”
“She’s my sister the big way: God made her. She’s not my sister any other way.”
“How does she come to be with you then?”
“I took her out of the water-butt. Some one threw her in, and I heard the splash, and went and got her out.”