on him--"

"What, Jimmie?"

"I wanna see him."

"Me, too, Jimmie. I wouldn't care much about anything else if I could
see him once; and if he is big and strong like your father was--"

"That gang don't come big and strong. They got big heads and little
necks."

"The kind of fellow that would know how to treat you when you got
stubborn, and would put his hand on your shoulder and not try to drive
you. If he was a man like that, Jimmie, the kind you and Essie needs,
I--I'd stop fightin'; I'd fold my hands and say to God: 'Ready! Ready
right this minute!'"

"Ready for what, ma?"

"Ready, Jimmie, my boy. Just hands folded and ready--that's all."

"Aw, cut it, can't you, ma? I--ma, quit scarin' a fellow. Quit battin'
your eyes like that. Tryin' to flirt with me, ain't you, ma? Quit it,
now! Lemme get you some of that black medicine--you're gettin' one of
your spells. Lemme run down-stairs and send Lizzie Marks for old man
Gibbs?"

"No, no, Jimmie--don't leave me! Hold me, my boy, so I can feel your
face. Don't cry, Jimmie; there ain't nothin' to cry about."

"Cut the comedy, ma! I ain't cryin'; I'm sweatin'."

"Jimmie, are--you--there? I feel so--so heavy."

"Sure I am, ma--right here, holding you in my arms. Feel! There's the
scar where old Gibbs sewed my face the time I got hit with a bat--feel,
ma--see, it's me."

"What's that, Jimmie, on the foot of the bed movin'?"

"See, ma--that's your flowered glad-rag. You're go-goin' to put it on
when Essie and her gen'l'man friend come in. It ain't movin'; I shoved
it."

"Don't muss it, Jimmie."

"No. See, I smoothed out its tail--it's a sash for you, ma."

"Jimmie, you won't leave me? It gets so dark and--the mice--"

"You couldn't pry me away with a crowbar, ma! I'll hold you till you
yell leggo. Lemme go for old Gibbs, ma; you're breathing heavy as a
pump."

"No, no, Jimmie; don't leave me."

"Sure I won't; but you're all twitchin' and jumpin', ma. Just leave me
run down and send Lizzie Marks for him."

"No, no, Jimmie; I'm all right."

"Sure, ma? You--you're actin' up so funny."

"It ain't nothin'--only I'm an old woman, Jimmie. All of a sudden I got
old and broke. It ain't the same in the department, Jimmie, with Essie
gone from the notions across the aisle. Always when we were overstocked
in the corsets she--she--Essie--"

"Aw, ma, you ain't talkin' straight. Lemme have old man Gibbs."

"I'm talking straight, Jimmie. Ain't I layin' right he