Vada’s eyes rolled ominously, and a pucker came to her little sunburnt brow. Jamie offered no preliminary, but howled at once. And when, after the slightest hesitation, Vada joined in his lament, Sunny’s distress became pitiable. However, he managed to ease his feelings by several well-directed mental curses at Wild Bill’s head, and all those others concerned in reducing him to his present position. And with this silently furious outburst there came a brain-wave of great magnitude.
“First in bed sure gets most m’lasses,” he cried, darting to the cupboard door and holding the well-smeared pot up above his head.
The children’s cries ceased, and for a second they stood staring up at him. Then, like a pair of rabbits, they turned and ran for the bedroom, vanishing behind the curtain amidst shrieking excitement. Sunny followed them with the molasses and a handful of crackers.
They were both on the bed when he passed into the room, huddling down under a couple of cotton blankets. The man glanced round him. On the other side of the room was the big bed where their father and mother slept. Both beds were unmade, and the room was littered with feminine garments in a manner that suggested the mother’s hasty flight. Hardened as he was, the sight and all it suggested depressed him. But he was not allowed much time for reflection. Two childish voices shrieked at him at once.
“Me first!” they cried in one breath.
And Sunny ladled them out molasses and crackers to their hearts’ content. When they had eaten all he thought good for them Vada scrambled to her knees.
“Prayers,” she said, and clasped her hands before her face.
Jamie wobbled up to her side and imitated her. And Sunny stood by listening wonderingly to something that brought back a world of recollection to him. It brought him more. It laid before him a mental picture of his present manhood which somehow nauseated him. But he stood his ground till the final “Amens,” then he hustled the twins almost roughly into the blankets, and, having extracted a promise from them not to leave the bed again until he returned, hurried out of the room.
He stood for a moment in the living-room. He was in a doubt that almost confused him. Mechanically he looked at the stove. The fire was quite safe. The window was secure. Then he moved to the door. There was a lock to it and a key. He passed out, and, locking the door behind him, removed the key.
“Gee!” he exclaimed, drinking in a breath of the evening air, “five minutes more o’ that an’ I’d ’a’ bin singin’ funeral hymns over my past life. Gee!”