There were many calls on the
limited fund at her command. "The money from the workhouse for your
husband's labor will pay the rent," she calculated. "I will give you a
small grocery order twice a week. You can manage with that?"
"Oh, yessum, splendid, and thank you kindly, ma'am," said Mrs. Callahan.
"Don't put down meat--just a little piece onct a week so's not to forget
the taste. And a leetle mite coffee. Put in mostly fillin' things--rice
and beans and dried apples. You got to cram seven hearty children.
Thank'e, thank'e, ma'am. Peggy, give the little lady some roses, the
purtiest ones where the frost hasn't nipped 'em."
While Miss Margery talked with Mrs. Callahan, Anne was getting
acquainted with the children. She chattered gleefully about them on her
homeward way. "Peggy says a lady her mother sews for gave them a lot of
clothes. Peggy has a pink velvet waist and a red skirt, and her mother
has a lace waist and a blue skirt with rows and rows of blue satin on
it. They're very int'resting children, Miss Margery, but do you think
they always tell just the very exact truth?" asked Anne.
"I'm afraid they do not. I'm afraid their mother doesn't set them a very
good example," answered Miss Margery who knew the Callahans of old.
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