ryin' fearful hard not to cry,
'Are ye goin' to take our Joey away?' she says. 'Is he your brother?'
says I. She jist nods her head. An' she says again, in a whisper,
'Are you goin' to take him away?' Well, Jake he looked at me, an' I
looked at him, an' we could both see we were thinkin' the same thing.
'She's the kind of a girl you want,' says Jake, 'an' mebby she'd help
take care o' the wee chap.' 'D'ye think we can afford it?' says I; an'
then she kind o' sidles up to me, an' says she, 'Aw, you won't take
Joey away, will you?' An' then the matron says, 'She's a good little
girl, Mrs. Sawyer; you won't ever regret it if you take her.' An' I
thought how lovely I'd make her hair curl, an' tie it up with a pink
ribbon, an' jist then she ups an' puts her two little arms around my
neck, an' she whispers, 'We couldn't get along without our Joey,' jist
awful pitiful like. An' I looks at Jake, an' Jake looks at me, an' he
nods, an' I says, 'All right.' It was the only thing to do, now,
wasn't it?"

Hannah paused, and gazed around appealingly.

"She got me 'round the neck, an' I couldn't no more make her let go
than I could fly," she added, as an unanswerable argument.

"Well, we jist got up to go, when there was the most awful racket
started up you ever heard tell of, and that other girl, the one with
the black head, comes runnin' up an' starts to dance 'round an' yell
an' scream. An' at that, my girl she ups an' hollers, too, an' I never
heard such a bedlam, each one screamin' they didn't want to leave the
other. Jake he shouted out to a big girl standin' there to know what
was the matter, an' she yells that they was twins an' hadn't never been
apart. An' then I seen that they were jist as alike as two peas,
except for the hair. Well, the black-headed one was makin' such a
fearful holler that the matron she says to the big girl, quite sharp
like, 'Take her up to the ward,' whatever place that may be. An' the
big girl she grabs the poor child by the arm an' begins to haul her to
the door, an' the tears streamin' down her little face.

"Well, with that, Jake he puts the red-headed one down with a bang, an'
he makes one leap for that big girl. I never seen Jake look like that
before, only once, and that was when Joel McMurtry kicked his dog an'
broke its leg, thirteen years ago next twenty-fourth. It was an awful
look. An' he jist grabs that child away from her, an' he says--he
says--oh, I'd be ashamed to t