" Douglas understood at last.
"I don't like to talk about it." Polly raised herself on her
elbow and looked at him solemnly, as though about to impart a bit
of forbidden family history. It was this look in the round eyes
that had made Jim so often declare that the kid knew everything.
"Why mother'd a been ashamed if she'd a knowed how she wound up.
She was the best rider of her time, everybody says so, but she
cashed in by fallin' off a skate what didn't have no more ginger
'an a kitten. If you can beat that?" She gazed at him with her
lips pressed tightly together, evidently expecting some startling
expression of wonder.
"And your father?" Douglas asked rather lamely, being at a loss
for any adequate comment upon a tragedy which the child before
him was too desolate even to understand.
"Oh, DAD'S finish was all right. He got his'n in a lion's cage
where he worked. There was nothing slow about his end." She
looked up for his approval.
"For de Lord's sake!" Mandy groaned as the wonder of the child's
conversation grew upon her.
"And now I'm down and out," Polly concluded with a sigh.
"But THIS is nothing serious," said the pastor, trying to cheer
her.
"It's serious ENOUGH, with a whole show a'- dependin' on you.
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