y like the broken ones," reported Mary
Louise in a jubilant tone as she set down her heavy basket. "Let us go
in and wash them, Ingua, and put them away where they belong."

The child followed her into the house. All her former pent-up energy
seemed to have evaporated. She moved in a dull sort of way that
betokened grim resignation.

"I've be'n plannin' fer months to make a run fer it," she remarked as
she washed the new dishes and Mary Louise wiped them dry, "an' just
when I'd mustered up courage to do the trick, along comes _you_ an'
queered the whole game."

"You'll thank me for that, some day, Ingua. Aren't you glad, even now,
that you have a home and shelter?"

"I ain't tickled to death about it. Home!" with a scornful glance
around the room, barren of all comforts. "A graveyard's a more cheerful
place, to my notion."

"We must try to make it pleasanter, dear. I'm going to get acquainted
with Mr. Cragg and coax him to brighten things up some, and buy you
some new clothes, and take better care of you."

Ingua fell back on a stool, fairly choking twixt amazement and
derision.

"You! Coax Ol' Swallertail? Make him spend money on _me!_ Say, if ye
wasn't a stranger here, Mary Louise, I'd jes' laugh; but bein' as how
yer a poor innercent, I'll only say ther' ain't no power on earth kin
coax Gran'dad to do anything better than to scowl an' box my ears. You
don't know him, but _I_ do."

"Meantime," said Mary Louise, refusing to argue the point, "here are
some little things for you to hide away, and to eat whenever you
please," and she took from the basket the canned goods she had bought
and set them in an enticing row upon the table.

Ingua stared at the groceries and then stared at Mary Louise. Her wan
face flushed and then grew hard.

"Ye bought them fer _me?_" she asked.

"Yes; so you won't have to steal eggs to satisfy your natural hunger."

"Well, ye kin take the truck away ag'in. An' you'd better go with it,"
said the girl indignantly. "We may be poor, but we ain't no beggars,
an' we don't take charity from nobody."

"But your grandfather--"

"We'll pay our own bills an' buy our own fodder. The Craggs is jus' as
good as yer folks, an' I'm a Cragg to the backbone," she cried, her
eyes glinting angrily. "If we want to starve, it's none o' yer
business, ner nobody else's," and springing up she seized the tins one
by one and sent them flying through the window, as she had sent the
dishpan and dishes ea