“It don’t make any difference to you who he is. He gave me a supper, an’ that’s more’n I’d had if I’d come here.”
“So he’s got money to spend on sich as you, has he? An’ I’m starvin’ to death for a drop of somethin’ to warm my stomach!” the old woman snarled.
“Well, starve then; he won’t give you anything to buy whiskey with.”
“Pay what you owe me, an’ that before you leave this house!”
Sadie took the eight cents from her pocket, knowing what a refusal might cost, and gave them to the besotted wretch.
“Is that all you’ve got?” the old woman cried in a rage. “Give me the whole of it, you little huzzey!”
“That’s what she made yesterday,” Josiah said firmly, thinking it time he came to the rescue, “an’ now she’s goin’ out with me.”
The woman looked at him as if in surprise that he should dare speak in such a tone to her, and while she was apparently lost in amazement Josiah took advantage of the opportunity to lead Sadie from the room.
“There’s no use foolin’ with such a thing as that,” he said, as they went through the long hall-way into the street. “The best way is to skin right out an’ leave ’em alone. I reckon she’ll get enough to drink with that eight cents to keep her quiet for a while, won’t she?”
“It don’t make any difference to me what she does, ’cause I sha’n’t have to go back agin ’till night. Now we’ll try to find your chums, an’ then I’ll go to work.”