The pedlar shook his head. “Ah,” he exclaimed, “they are hard times, sure enough; may the Lord bring us all safe through them! Well, I see I'm not likely to make my fortune among you,” he added, smiling, “so I must tramp on, but any way, I must thank you for house-room and your civility.”
“I'd offer something to ait,” said Mrs. Sullivan, with evident pain, “but the truth is—”
“Not a morsel,” replied the other, “if the house was overflown.'. God bless you all—God bless you.”
Mave, almost immediately after her brother had concluded, passed to another room, and returned just as the old pedlar had gone out. She instantly followed him with a hasty step; while he, on hearing her foot, turned round.
“You told me that you admired my hair,” she said, on coming up to him. “Now, supposin' I'm willin' to sell it to you, what ought I to get for it?”
“Don't be alarmed by what they say inside,” replied the pedlar; “any regular doctor would tell that, in these times, it's safer to part wid it—that I may be happy but I'm tellin' you thruth. What is it worth? What are you axin?”
“I don't know; but for God's sake cut it off, and give me the most you can afford for it. Oh! believe me, it's not on account of the mere value of it, but the money may save lives.”
“Why, achora, what do you intend doin' wid the money, if it's a fair question to ax?”
“It's not a fair question for a stranger—it's enough for me to tell you that I'll do nothing with it without my father and mother's knowledge. Here, Denny,” she said, addressing her brother, who was on his way to the stable, “slip a stool through the windy, an' stay wid me in the barn—I want to send you of a message in a few minutes.”
It is only necessary to say that the compensation was a more liberal one than Mave had at all expected, and the pedlar disencumbered her of as rich and abundant a mass of hair as ever ornamented a female head. This he did, however, in such a way as to render the absence of it as little perceptible as might be; the side locks he did not disturb, and Mave, when she put on a clean night cap, looked as if she had not undergone any such operation.