a black-kid finger at Jane. Jane quickly
reviewed her life to see which sin had been discovered. "The whole
village is intoxicated, you cruel child." They all stared at her.
"They tell me it was you made such shocking guys of those poor,
benighted old women who are now dancing in the street like drunken
playactors." A scarlet flame leapt from face to face; the children
turned to each other with burning cheeks. "If my uncle had been able
he would have come here himself," Miss Rannigan went on.

"We--we--we----" Jane stammered; she could not tell Miss Rannigan about
the Dorcas Society.

"Do not try to make excuses," said that lady.

"We make no excuses," said Patsy wrathfully. "We done it a' purpose,
just for the pure divilment a' the thing."

"Wean, dear!" Lull remonstrated.

"Their meanin' was good, miss," she began. Andy's head appeared round
the door.

"If ye plaze, Miss Jane, wee Cush is here, an' she says for the love of
God will ye come an' take them fancy boots off her ould granny that ye
put on last night, for ne'er a buddy else can. The ould woman niver
got a wink a' sleep, an' the two feet's burnin' aff her."

"I should like to teach you what a mother is," said Miss Rannigan
grimly.

"Do ye think she was tellin' the truth?" said Mick when she had gone.

Jane was putting on her hat. "I'm goin' to see," she said. She
departed for the village, and the others went with her, in spite of
Lull's entreaties to them to stay and eat their dinner first. Lull put
the dinner in the oven, and then sat down and cried. They came back
miserably dejected. Miss Rannigan's tale was only too true. "There's
hardly wan sober," Jane explained. "Ould Mrs Cush is, 'cause the boots
hurted her that much she couldn't put fut to the flure. I had to cut
them off her."

"Where did they get the drink?" Lull asked.

"At the Red Lion. John M'Fall had them all in, an' made them drunk for
nuthin', 'cause they looked that awful funny in our clothes." Jane put
her head down on the table, and cried bitterly. Mick tried to comfort
her, while Fly and Honeybird wept on Lull's lap.

"Sure, ye did it all for the best, dear," Lull said. "It's meselfs the
bad ould fool not to see how it would be from the first."

Suddenly Patsy began to laugh. "I can't help it if ye are cross wi'
me, Jane, but I wisht ye'd seen ould Mrs Glover in thon furry hat."

Jane raised a wrathful face. "It's awful wicked of ye, Patsy, when
meb