Unfortunately for Tommy, Mammy passed the open door at this moment.
“Oh, my dear soul,” she exclaimed, when the incident had been explained to her. “I telled ee the letter was for Miss Margaret. Go right away to wanst.”
“It didn’t really matter at all,” the Blue Lady interrupted. “And, you see, according to Tommy’s idea of justice it was quite wrong for the letter to be for me.”
But Mammy was angry, and holding a tearful and ruffled Tommy firmly by the hand she led him downstairs.
So the morning began badly. Mammy’s lips were tightly closed. Tommy ate his breakfast in sullen silence, standing instead of sitting to annoy Mammy, who took no notice of her son’s waywardness, and so made matters worse.
After breakfast Mrs. Tregennis held out a penny to Tommy, who was wiping his lips with the back of his hand. “See if you can get a bit of mint to Bridget’s, and be quick back.”
“I ain’t a-goin’ to fetch no more errands for ee to-day,” Tommy replied to his mother, raising his clear, blue, innocent eyes, and looking unflinchingly into hers.
“Oh, very well,” said Mammy with a sigh, making a feint of undoing her apron strings. “Then I must go to wanst myself, busy though I be.”
“Why can’t ee send Mabel, or Annie, or Ruthie?” objected Tommy in a determined voice.