people, it will only put fresh difficulties in the way of persuading
them to give up the children."

"I tell dem my mi-int," persisted Mrs. Petersen; but finally she was
persuaded to listen to reason and to satisfy herself with relieving her
"mi-int."

My idea had been to induce Mrs. Petersen and Johnny--or Mrs. Petersen
rather, for Johnny was sure to follow her lead, to take Matty and Tony
under their care, and give them a home. Cousin Serena had offered to
furnish the means for Tony's support, and I to do the same for Matty.
But the florist and his wife had been unwilling to undertake the
charge, even if the parents could be bribed to give up the children,
lest they should be exposed to trouble in the future; therefore the
Blairs had not yet been approached on the subject. I was for taking
high-handed measures, and having the children separated from them on
the ground of neglect and cruelty; but wiser and less impulsive heads
than mine had decided that there was hardly sufficient reason for this,
and I had been obliged to restrain my impatience and content myself
with such alleviations of their lot as I could compass at present. I am
not patient by nature, and could not bear to have any delay or
hinderances put in the way of my schemes for the benefit of those
children, and in secret I chafed a little over this.

It will readily be surmised what had become of Matty's hair.

Doubting the truth of Theodore's story, and yet fearing that there
might be some foundation for it, Tony had confided to his sister that
he meant to ask Jim about it, notwithstanding Theodore's warning to
beware how he did so. Jim's anger at the questions he had put,
especially at that regarding the "poisoning," had been enough to
convince him that it was all true. Jim _had_ a secret which he was
afraid to have known; and that secret could be nothing more nor less
than the alleged poisoning, which he plainly could not or would not
deny; and which, according to ignorant little Tony's ideas, he was
afraid to have come to the ears of the police. Theodore had learned of
that unfortunate occurrence--as we heard later when all this came to
light--through the medium of a stray copy of the objectionable paper
containing the paragraph before referred to. This he had happened to
read to his grandfather and grandmother, who, proud of his ability to
do this far better than they could do it for themselves--for reading
with Captain and Mrs. Yorke was a work