bout the rats. You'd see one stick his nose out of a hole in
the corner every little while. She said she had to have things handy
to throw at them when she was alone, or they wouldn't give her no
peace. She showed me a bar of lead twisted up into a knot, and said
she was a good shot with it generly, but she'd wrenched her arm a day
or two ago, and didn't know whether she could throw true now. But she
watched for a chance, and directly banged away at a rat; but she
missed him wide, and said, "Ouch!" it hurt her arm so. Then she told
me to try for the next one. I wanted to be getting away before the old
man got back, but of course I didn't let on. I got the thing, and the
first rat that showed his nose I let drive, and if he'd 'a' stayed
where he was he'd 'a' been a tolerable sick rat. She said that was
first-rate, and she reckoned I would hive the next one. She went and
got the lump of lead and fetched it back, and brought along a hank of
yarn which she wanted me to help her with. I held up my two hands and
she put the hank over them, and went on talking about her and her
husband's matters. But she broke off to say:

"Keep your eye on the rats. You better have the lead in your lap,
handy."

So she dropped the lump into my lap just at that moment, and I clapped
my legs together on it and she went on talking. But only about a
minute. Then she took off the hank and looked me straight in the face,
and very pleasant, and says:

"Come, now, what's your real name?"

"Wh-hat, mum?"

"What's your real name? Is it Bill, or Tom, or Bob?--or what is it?"

I reckon I shook like a leaf, and I didn't know hardly what to do. But
I says:

"Please to don't poke fun at a poor girl like me, mum. If I'm in the
way here, I'll--"

"No, you won't. Set down and stay where you are. I ain't going to hurt
you, and I ain't going to tell on you, nuther. You just tell me your
secret, and trust me. I'll keep it; and, what's more, I'll help you.
So'll my old man if you want him to. You see, you're a runaway
'prentice, that's all. It ain't anything. There ain't no harm in it.
You've been treated bad, and you made up your mind to cut. Bless you,
child, I wouldn't tell on you. Tell me all about it now, that's a good
boy."

So I said it wouldn't be no use to try to play it any longer, and I
would just make a clean breast and tell her everything, but she
mustn't go back on her promise. Then I told her my father and mother
was dead, and the law h