e Crawford!' and Peterkin's big
feet came down from the back of the chair on which they were resting,
upsetting the chair and his brandy at the same time. 'Jerrie Crawford! I
swow! A gal without a cent, or name either, though I used to have a
sneakin' notion that I knew who she was, but I guess I didn't. 'Twould
have come out afore now. What under heavens put her into your noddle?
She can't _boost_! and then she's head and shoulders taller than you be!
How you would look trottin' beside her! Jerrie Crawford! Wal, I swan!'
and Peterkin laughed until his big stomach shook like a bowl of jelly.

Billy was angry, and replied that he did not know what height had to do
with it, or name either; and as for _boosting_, he wouldn't marry a
king's daughter, if he did not love her; and for that matter Jerrie
could boost, for she stood quite as high in town as any young lady.

Both Nina St. Claire and Maude Tracy worshipped her, while Mrs. Atherton
paid her a great deal of attention; and so did the Mungers and
Crosbys--enough sight more than they did to Ann Eliza with all her
money.

'Mo-money isn't ev-everything.' Billy stammered, 'and Je-Jerrie would
make a ve-very different pl-place of Le Bateau.'

'Mebby she would--mebby she would; but I'd never thought of her for
you,' Peterkin said. 'I'd picked out some; big bug, who perhaps wouldn't
wipe her shoes on you. Jerrie is handsome as blazes and no mistake, with
a kinder up and comin' way about her which takes the folks. Yes, it
keeps growin' on me, and I presume Arthur Tracy would give her away,
which would be a feather in your cap; but lord! you'll have to git a
pair of the highest heels you ever seen to come within ten foot on her.'

'She's only two inches t-taller than I am,' Billy said, and his father
continued:

'Wall, if your heart's set on her go it, and quick, too, I'm goin' to
have a smasher of a party in the fall, and Jerrie'll be just the one to
draw, I can see her now, standin' there with the diamonds we'll give her
sparklin' on her neck, and she lookin' like a queen, and the _sinecure_
of all eyes. But for thunder's sake don't marry the old woman and all.
Leave her to Harold, the sneak! I never did like him, and I'll be mad
enough to kill him if he goes agin me in the suit, and I b'lieve he
will.'

At this point Peterkin wandered off to the suit entirely and forgot
Jerrie, who was to boost the house of Peterkin and make it 'fust-cut.'
But not so Billy, and all t