Part 13 (1/2)
”Do you like it?”
”I like to go. I don't like the place, Norton, for the place is very disagreeable.”
”So I should think. But I might like to go too, you know. I'm going to try.”
Matilda stood still and looked very dubious.
”I'm going,” Norton repeated, laughing. ”You want me to go, don't you?”
”Why, I would like it very much, if you would not”----
”What? No, I will not,” said Norton, shaking his head.
”But, Norton, I am going into Mr. Forshew's, first.”
”Well; I can go into Mr. Forshew's too. I've been _there_ before.”
”I am going to buy a tea-kettle.”
”I shall not interfere with that,” said Norton.
”But I am going to get a tea-kettle and take it along with me--to Lilac Lane.”
”What for? They'll send it if you want it.”
”I want it immediately, and Mr. Forshew's boy is never there when he is wanted, you know.”
”_You_ want the tea-kettle immediately. You are not going to make tea immediately, are you?”
”Exactly that, Norton. That is one of the things I am going to do. And the poor old woman I am going to see has no tea-kettle.”
”Then I don't believe she has tea.”
”Oh yes, but I know she has tea, Norton.”
”And bread and b.u.t.ter?”
”Yes, and bread and b.u.t.ter too,” said Matilda, nodding her little head positively. Norton looked at her with a perfectly grave face.
”It must be a very odd house,” said he, ”I don't see how you can be so sure of things.”
Matilda began to walk on towards the corner.
”Who took her tea and bread and b.u.t.ter?” said Norton. ”I suppose you know, if you know the rest.”
”Of course, somebody must have done it,” said Matilda, hesitating.
”I wonder if there was a Pink anywhere among the things,” said Norton.
”Did you see anything of it?”
Matilda could not help laughing, and they both laughed; and so they went into Mr. Forshew's shop. It was a little, low shop, just on the corner; but, to be sure, there was a great variety, and a good collection of things there. All sorts of iron things, and a great many sorts of tin things; with iron dust, and street dust, plentifully overlying the shop and everything in it. Stoves were there in variety; chains, and brooms, and coal-skuttles; coffee-mills, and axes, and lamps; tin pails, and earthen batter jars; screws, and nails, and hinges, and locks; and a telegraph operator was at work in a corner.