Part 13 (1/2)

Soon it was able to lap some milk out of the saucer, and to eat some crumbled bread.

”Ain't it a little dear?” said Becky, her thin face lighted up with pleasure. ”Oh Dan, it's purring! It must be quite well, mustn't it?”

”I expect it'll want a good long sleep first,” said Dan, looking gravely at the kitten, which had curled itself up by Becky's side, and begun a faint little song of thankfulness; ”it's been through a deal.”

He took his neglected supper, and sat down to eat it at the foot of Becky's couch, while Mrs Tuvvy returned to her cooking at the fire, still grumbling half aloud. There was not much bread and milk, and Dan, who always had a good appet.i.te, was unusually hungry after his exertions that afternoon. He had been through a deal, as well as the kitten. But by dint of talking to his sister between each spoonful, he managed to eke out the meal, and make it seem much more. Becky listened with the most eager interest, meanwhile, to all the details of the fight, the policeman, and the escape of Dan with the kitten. When there was no more to tell, and very little more to eat, she leaned back on her couch and sighed.

”He's a reg'lar bad un, that Bill!” she said presently. ”Will he want to fight again?”

Dan shook his head. ”I shan't come across him no more,” he said; ”not now I'm going to a place.”

”I forgot,” said Becky wearily. ”Oh Dan, how long the days'll be when you don't come home to dinner. Whatever shall I do?”

”Why,” said Dan soothingly, ”you won't be alone now. You'll have the kit.”

Becky gave a faint little smile.

”I mean to get you a good long bit of string,” went on Dan, ”and tie a cork to the end, and then, you see, you'll bounce it about for the kit to play with, and carry on fine, without moving.”

”I suppose it'll get to know me after a bit, won't it?” said Becky, evidently pleased with Dan's idea.

”Just about,” answered her brother decidedly. Becky looked down fondly at the small grey form on her arm.

”Dr Price's dogs came in with him to-day,” she said, ”but they mustn't come in no more now. They'd worry it to death. Mother told him to-day,” she added in a lower tone, ”as how she couldn't pay his bill, because of father.”

”What did he say?” asked Dan.

”He said, 'That's a bad job, Mrs Tuvvy, but it can't be helped.'”

”Did he say you were getting better?” asked Dan again, sc.r.a.ping his basin carefully round with his spoon.

”He said I wanted plenty of rest, and plenty of nouris.h.i.+ng food,” said Becky. ”What's nouris.h.i.+ng food, Dan?”

”Nice things,” said Dan, balancing his spoon on the edge of his basin, and smacking his hungry lips; ”chickens, and jellies, and pies, and such like.”

”Oh,” said Becky, with a patient sigh. ”Well, we shan't have no money at all now, so we can't get any of 'em.”

”I shall get six s.h.i.+llings a week when I begin work,” said Dan; ”and there's what mother gets charing. But then there's the rent, you see, and father getting nothing--”

He broke off, for the door opened, and Tuvvy himself appeared with his basket of tools on his shoulder. The children looked at him silently as he flung himself into a chair, but his wife began immediately in a tone of mild reproachfulness.

”Yer supper's been waiting this ever so long, and it wasn't much to boast of to begin with, but there--I s'pose we may be thankful to get a bit of dry bread now.”

She poured the contents of the saucepan into a dish, sighing and lamenting over it as she did so.

”'Tain't what I've been used to, as was always brought up respectable, and have done my duty to the children. And there's the doctor's bill--I s'pose he won't come to see Becky no more till that's paid--and there she is on her back a cripple, as you may call it, for life p'r'aps. And what is it you mean to turn to, now you've lost a good place?”

As long as there was a mouthful of his supper left, Tuvvy preserved a strict silence; but when his plate was empty, he pushed it away, and said grimly, ”Gaffer's goin' to let me stop on.”

”Stop on!” repeated Mrs Tuvvy. She stopped short in her progress across the kitchen, and let the empty plate she was carrying fall helplessly at her side. ”Stop on!” she repeated.