"
"Patsey, avick, wobble yer tooth now man alive. Don't be
havin' that loose thing hangin' in yer jaw, and Pearlie
comin' home so soon."
The younger children, whose appetites were out of all
proportion to the supply, were often "tided over" what
might have been a tearful time by a promise of the good
time coming. When Danny cried because the bottom of his
porridge plate was "always stickin' through," and later
in the same day came home in the same unmanned condition
because he had smelled chickens cooking down at the hotel
when he and Jimmy went with the milk, Mary rose to the
occasion and told him in a wild flight of unwarranted
extravagance that they would have a turkey when Pearl
came home. 'N cranberry sauce. 'N brown gravy. No-ow!
The house had undergone some preparations for the joyous
event. Everything was scrubbed that could be scrubbed.
An elaborately scalloped newspaper drape ornamented the
clock shelf; paper chains, made of blue and yellow
sale-bills, were festooned from the elbow of the stove
pipes to the window curtains; the wood box was freshly
papered with newspaper; red flannel was put in the lamps.
The children were scrubbed until they shone. Bugsey's
sweater had a hole in the "chist," but you would never
know it the way he held his hand. Tommy's stocking had
a hole in the knee, but he had artfully inserted a piece
of black lining that by careful watching kept up
appearances.
Mrs.
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