“The owdacious young reprobate!” muttered the old woman, glaring fiercely at her unconscious victim.
But Tom just then happened to look up, as we have seen. Her heart gave a sudden thump, and she said to herself, “I’m in for a lickin’, that’s so. Granny’s mad as blazes.”
The old woman did not long leave her in doubt as to the state of her feelings.
She strode into the eating-house, and, advancing to the table, seized Tom by the arm.
“What are you here for?” she growled, in a hoarse voice.
“To get some dinner,” said Tom.
By this time she had recovered from her temporary panic. She had courage and pluck, and was toughened by the hard life she had led into a stoical endurance of the evils from which she could not escape.
“What business had you to come?”
“I was hungry.”
“Didn’t I give you a piece of bread?”