he?

MARTHY--[Earnestly.] Well, yuh can bet your life, kid, he's as good an
old guy as ever walked on two feet. That goes!

ANNA--[Pleased.] I'm glad to hear it. Then you think's he'll stake me
to that rest cure I'm after?

MARTHY--[Emphatically.] Surest thing you know. [Disgustedly.] But
where'd yuh get the idea he was a janitor?

ANNA--He wrote me he was himself.

MARTHY--Well, he was lyin'. He ain't. He's captain of a barge--five men
under him.

ANNA--[Disgusted in her turn.] A barge? What kind of a barge?

MARTHY--Coal, mostly.

ANNA--A coal barge! [With a harsh laugh.] If that ain't a swell job to
find your long lost Old Man working at! Gee, I knew something'd be
bound to turn out wrong--always does with me. That puts my idea of his
giving me a rest on the bum.

MARTHY--What d'yuh mean?

ANNA--I s'pose he lives on the boat, don't he?

MARTHY--Sure. What about it? Can't you live on it, too?

ANNA--[Scornfully.] Me? On a dirty coal barge! What d'you think I am?

MARTHY--[Resentfully.] What d'yuh know about barges, huh? Bet yuh ain't
never seen one. That's what comes of his bringing yuh up inland--away
from the old devil sea--where yuh'd be safe--Gawd! [The irony of it
strikes her sense of humor and she laughs hoarsely.]

ANNA--[Angrily.] His bringing me up! Is that what he tells people! I
like his nerve! He let them cousins of my Old Woman's keep me on their
farm and work me to death like a dog.

MARTHY--Well, he's got queer notions on some things. I've heard him say
a farm was the best place for a kid.

ANNA--Sure. That's what he'd always answer back--and a lot of crazy
stuff about staying away from the sea--stuff I couldn't make head or
tail to. I thought he must be nutty.

MARTHY--He is on that one point. [Casually.] So yuh didn't fall for
life on the farm, huh?

ANNA--I should say not! The old man of the family, his wife, and four
sons--I had to slave for all of 'em. I was only a poor relation, and
they treated me worse than they dare treat a hired girl. [After a
moment's hesitation--somberly.] It was one of the sons--the
youngest--started me--when I was sixteen. After that, I hated 'em so
I'd killed 'em all if I'd stayed. So I run away--to St. Paul.

MARTHY--[Who has been listening sympathetically.] I've heard Old Chris
talkin' about your bein' a nurse girl out there. Was that all a bluff
yuh put up when yuh wrote him?

ANNA--Not on your life, it wasn't. It was true for two years. I di