Essie hung her head, though not too low to see the banana that Mrs. Rowe presently brought her.
“What do you say, Hessie? For shame! Can’t you thank the lady?”
“Tank oo,” mumbled Essie in the act of skinning the fruit with her sharp little teeth.
“That’s a good gell, Hessie. You and ’Arry must heat your bananas ’ere on the porch while I carry in the clothes.
“If you’ll believe it, Mrs. Rowe, that rogue of a Hessie ran away again yesterday,” she continued, following Mrs. Rowe into the side hall. “A beastly race she led us. She tired ’Arry hall out.”
“Harry looks delicate this summer,” remarked Mrs. Rowe, as she began to sort the clothes into piles.
“’Arry’s fat, Mrs. Rowe, but he isn’t rugged. If I could lay ’ands on the gold I’ve buried I’d take him away for his ’ealth.”
“Why can’t Miss Hobbs get her gold, mamma?” whispered Weezy, coming in just then. “Can’t Kirke and I dig it up for her?”
“Miss Hobbs means, dear, that she has spent her money for land that she cannot sell, and so she can’t afford to take Harry into the country this summer.”
“You’d better let him go to Santa Luzia with the Rowe family,” laughed Kirke, as his mother gave him some garments to carry up-stairs. “Let him go, and I’ll see to him.”