“What a stupid thing you are, Sally! How could that do him any good?”
Sally looked at her friend with an air of pity.
“Didn’t you say he was awrful t’in?” she asked.
“Thin? Oh yes—dreadfully thin.”
“Well, den, isn’t dat ’cause he not hab ’nuff to eat? I knows it, bress you! I’s bin wid a missis as starved me. Sometimes I t’ink I could eat my shoes. Ob course I got awrful t’in—so t’in dat w’en I stood side-wise you could hardly see me. Well, what de way to get fat an’ strong? Why, eat, ob course. Eat—eat—eat. Das de way. Now, your fadder git not’ing but black bread, an’ not ’nuff ob dat; an’ he git plenty hard work too, so he git t’in. So, what I prupposes is to gib him two good biskits ebery day. We couldn’t gib him more’n two, ’cause he’d hab to hide what he couldn’t eat at once, an’ de drivers would be sure to diskiver ’em. But two biskits could be gobbled quick on de sly, an’ would help to make him fat, an’ to make you easy.”
“So they would,” said Hester, eagerly entertaining the idea after this explanation; “you’re a clever girl, Sally—”
“You say I’s stoopid jest now!”
“So I did, Sally. Forgive me! I was stupid besides unkind for saying so. But how shall we manage it? Won’t the guards see us doing it?”
“No fear, Geo’giana! De guards am fools—t’ink dere’s nobody like ’em. Dey forgit. All de asses in Algiers am like ’em. Dis de way ob it. You an’ me we’ll go to markit ebery day wid baskits on our arms, an we’ll ob course go round by de walls, where your fadder works. No doubt it’s a roundabout way, but what ob dat? We’ll go at de hour your fadder feeds wid de oder slabes, an’ as we pass we’ll drop de two biskits in his lap.”
“But won’t he be taken by surprise, Sally?”