astin', all
the while, t' draw friendly notice, that her heart was broke for good
an' all. 'Twas a year an' more afore she flung up her pretty little
head an' married a good man o' Skeleton Bight. An' now here she was,
come back again, plump an' dimpled an' roguish as ever she'd been in
her life. On a bit of a cruise, says she; but 'twas not on a cruise
she'd come--'twas t' flaunt her new baby on the roads o' Tinkle
Tickle.

"A wonderful baby, ecod! You'd think it t' hear the women cackle o'
the quality o' that child. An' none more than Mary Mull. She kissed
Polly Twitter, an' she kissed the baby; an' she vowed--with the
sparkle o' joyous truth in her wet brown eyes--that the most
bewitchin' baby on the coast, the stoutest baby, the cleverest baby,
the sweetest baby, had come straight t' Polly Twitter, as though it
wanted the very prettiest mother in all the world, an' knowed jus'
what it was about.

"An' Polly kissed Mary. 'You is so _kind_, Mary!' says she. ''Tis jus'
_sweet_ o' you! How _can_ you!'

"'Sweet?' says Mary, puzzled. 'Why, no, Polly. I'm--glad.'

"'Is you, Mary? 'Tis so _odd_! Is you really--_glad_?'

"'Why not?'

"'I don't know, Mary,' says Polly. 'But I--I--I 'lowed, somehow--that
you wouldn't be--so _very_ glad. An' I'm not sure that I'm
grateful--enough.'

"An' the women o' Tinkle Tickle wondered, too, that Mary Mull could
kiss Polly Twitter's baby. Polly Twitter with a rosy baby,--a lusty
young nipper,--an' a lad, t' boot! An' poor Mary Mull with no child,
at all, t' bless Tim Mull's house with! An' Tim Mull a lover o'
children, as everybody knowed! The men chuckled a little, an' cast
winks about, when Polly Twitter appeared on the roads with the baby;
for 'twas a comical thing t' see her air an' her strut an' the flash
o' pride in her eyes. But the women kep' their eyes an' ears open--an'
waited for what might happen. They was all sure, ecod, that there was
a gale comin' down; an' they was women,--an' they knowed the hearts o'
women,--an' they was wise, if not kind, in their expectation.

"As for Mary Mull, she give never a sign o' trouble, but kep' right on
kissin' Polly Twitter's baby, whenever she met it, which Polly
contrived t' be often; an' I doubt that she knowed--until she couldn't
help knowin'--that there was pity abroad at Tinkle Tickle for Tim
Mull.

"'Twas at the Methodist treat on Bide-a-Bit Point that Polly Twitter
managed her mischief. 'Twas a time well-chosen, too. Trust