oliceman whose conduct upon that
occasion she referred to when she said: "The police, damn 'em."

"Eh, Jimmie, it's cursed shame," she said. "Go, now, like a dear an'
buy me a can, an' if yer mudder raises 'ell all night yehs can sleep
here."

Jimmie took a tendered tin-pail and seven pennies and departed. He
passed into the side door of a saloon and went to the bar. Straining
up on his toes he raised the pail and pennies as high as his arms would
let him. He saw two hands thrust down and take them. Directly the
same hands let down the filled pail and he left.

In front of the gruesome doorway he met a lurching figure. It was his
father, swaying about on uncertain legs.

"Give me deh can. See?" said the man, threateningly.

"Ah, come off! I got dis can fer dat ol' woman an' it 'ud be dirt teh
swipe it. See?" cried Jimmie.

The father wrenched the pail from the urchin. He grasped it in both
hands and lifted it to his mouth. He glued his lips to the under edge
and tilted his head. His hairy throat swelled until it seemed to grow
near his chin. There was a tremendous gulping movement and the beer
was gone.

The man caught his breath and laughed. He hit his son on the head with
the empty pail. As it rolled clanging into the street, Jimmie began to
scream and kicked repeatedly at his father's shins.

"Look at deh dirt what yeh done me," he yelled. "Deh ol' woman 'ill be
raisin' hell."

He retreated to the middle of the street, but the man did not pursue.
He staggered toward the door.

"I'll club hell outa yeh when I ketch yeh," he shouted, and disappeared.

During the evening he had been standing against a bar drinking whiskies
and declaring to all comers, confidentially: "My home reg'lar livin'
hell! Damndes' place! Reg'lar hell! Why do I come an' drin' whisk'
here thish way? 'Cause home reg'lar livin' hell!"

Jimmie waited a long time in the street and then crept warily up
through the building. He passed with great caution the door of the
gnarled woman, and finally stopped outside his home and listened.

He could hear his mother moving heavily about among the furniture of
the room. She was chanting in a mournful voice, occasionally
interjecting bursts of volcanic wrath at the father, who, Jimmie
judged, had sunk down on the floor or in a corner.

"Why deh blazes don' chere try teh keep Jim from fightin'? I'll break
her jaw," she suddenly bellowed.

The man mumbled with drunken indi