“They were very good, sir. Once I found a little turnover in a pail Mrs. Tingsby brought home—the sweetest little turnover I ever ate. There were lots of surprises. You know Jimmy Fox, the dog man, don’t you?”
“No, I don’t know him.”
“Well, he has lots of dogs, and he lives out the back road near the iron works. Jimmy always carried a bag; Mrs. Tingsby, she took a pail. One night Jimmy got a whole rabbit. He was so pleased; but Mrs. Tingsby said there must have been something the matter with that rabbit, or they wouldn’t have given him a whole one. However, Jimmy didn’t die, and he ate it. She saw him.”
The Judge tried to smile, but he could not. He did not find Bethany’s reminiscences at all amusing.
“Child,” he said, suddenly, “promise me that you won’t pick up any more coal.”
Bethany looked at him in surprise. “Why, course not, Daddy Grandpa, if you don’t want me to.”
“And take the soap Mrs. Blodgett gives you; don’t use Hittaker’s.”
“Very well, Daddy Grandpa,” she replied, quietly. “Has Bethany been a bad girl?”
“No, child, no; but it is not necessary for you to be so economical.”
“I don’t know what that means.”