Part 6 (1/2)
”No! n.o.body ain't daid!” snapped an old man. ”n.o.body ain't eben a-dyin'.
Now that thar d.i.c.k Lee done bought up th' only carsket in the sto' an'
my Luly is mighty low--mighty low.”
”Sho-o' nuf I ain't heard tell of it. Is she in de baid?”
”Well, not ter say in de baid--but on de baid, on de baid. Anyhow 'tain't safe to count on her fer long. White folks is sho' graspin'
these days. They is sho' graspin'.”
The old man departed on his way grumbling.
”Caroline Tucker, what did you sell that coffin to that young man for?”
demanded Dum sternly.
”Just to see if I could, Virginia Tucker. I told him I'd like to see him in a coffin lined with lavender, and he was so complimented, he immediately bought it to keep for a rainy day.”
Dee and I had made so many sales that Annie had to send a telegram informing her father of the diminished stock. It was necessary to order another coffin immediately in case the ailing Luly might need it.
CHAPTER V
THE HUMAN FLY
GENERAL PRICE was vastly amused over the account of Dee's sale of the coffin to the amiable d.i.c.k. Miss Maria was frankly shocked, and Miss Wilc.o.x amazed and a little scornful.
”I never cared for slumming,” she announced that night when we had retired to the girls' wing.
”But helping Annie Pore keep store is not slumming,” said Dee, the dimple in her chin deepening.
Dee Tucker had a dimple in her chin just like her father. When father and daughter got ready for a fight, those dimples always deepened.
”Most kind of you, I am sure, although that sort of adventure never appealed to me. I have taught in the mission school in New York's East Side, but when the cla.s.s is over I always leave. I can't bear to mix with the lower cla.s.ses. It is all right to help them but not by mixing.”
”But you don't understand,--Annie Pore is one of our very best friends.
She is not the lower cla.s.ses. She is better born than any of us and prettier and better bred and more accomplished----”
”Ah, indeed! I should like to behold this paragon.”
”Well, you shall behold her all right! She is going to join us here in a day or so.”
Jessie Wilc.o.x looked very much astonished and quite haughty. She could not understand the Prices asking such a person to meet her. The daughter of a country storekeeper was hardly one whom she cared to know socially.
Dee had gone about it the wrong way to make the spoiled beauty look with favor on the little English girl:--prettier, better born, better bred, indeed! As for accomplishments: what accomplishments could a dowdy little country girl have that she had not?
The Tuckers and Jessie Wilc.o.x were not hitting it off very well in the great bedroom which they shared. Dum had declared she would not move the fluffy finery which was spread out on her bed and she stuck to her word.
”What are you going to do with these duds?” she asked rather brusquely.
”Oh, you just put them back in my trunk,” drawled the spoiled roommate.