Joe's surprise at seeing this tiny lady, when he had expected to be confronted by a man, prevented him from speaking at once, and the small woman asked, with mild curiosity:
"Whose children are you?"
This was a question Joe was not prepared to answer, and he stammered and stuttered before being able to say:
"I don't know as we're anybody's, ma'am. You see we ain't got any place to stop in for a day or two, an' thought perhaps a farmer lived here what would have work we could do to pay for our board."
"Are you hungry, child?" the small woman asked, quickly, and, as it seemed to Joe, anxiously.
"Not very much now, 'cause we've had a good supper; but we will be in the mornin', you know."
And Master Plummer interrupted, as he pinched his companion's arm to reduce him to silence:
"We've been walkin' a good while since then, an' it seems like I was most starved."
"You poor child! Come right into the house, an' it'll be strange if I can't find something to eat; though, to tell the truth, I didn't have real good luck with this week's batch of bread; but if custard pie—"
"If custard pie!" Master Plummer cried, ecstatically. "Why, I'd be fixed great if I could have some!"