Sowing Seeds in Danny | Page 4

there was a little boy
called Jimmie Watson"--here all eyes were turned on Jimmy, who was
sitting on the floor mending his moccasin with a piece of sinew. "There
was a little boy called Jimmy Watson who used to carry milk to the
lady's back dure, and a girl with black eyes and white teeth all smiley
used to take it from him, and put it in a lovely pitcher with birds flying
all over it. But one day the lady, herself, was there all dressed in lovely
pink velvet and lace, and a train as long as from me to you, and she sez
to Jimmy, sez she, 'Have you any sisters or brothers at home,' and Jim
speaks up real proud-like, 'Just nine,' he sez, and sez she, swate as you
please, 'Oh, that's lovely! Are they all as purty as you?' she sez, and
Jimmy sez, 'Purtier if anything,' and she sez, 'I'll be steppin' over to-day
to see yer ma,' and Jim ran home and told them all, and they all got
brushed and combed and actin' good, and in she comes, laving her

carriage at the dure, and her in a long pink velvet cape draggin' behind
her on the flure, and wide white fer all around it, her silk skirts creakin'
like a bag of cabbage and the eyes of her just dancin' out of her head,
and she says, 'These are fine purty childer ye have here, Mrs. Watson.
This is a rale purty girl, this oldest one. What's her name?' and ma ups
and tells her it is Rebecca Jane Pearl, named for her two grandmothers,
and Pearl just for short. She says, 'I'll be for taking you home wid me,
Pearlie, to play the pianny for me,' and then she asks all around what
the children's names is, and then she brings out a big box, from under
her cape, all tied wid store string, and she planks it on the table and
tearin' off the string, she sez, 'Now, Pearlie, it's ladies first, tibby sure.
What would you like to see in here?' And I says up quick-- 'A long coat
wid fer on it, and a handkerchief smellin' strong of satchel powder,' and
she whipped them out of the box and threw them on my knee, and a
new pair of red mitts too. And then she says, 'Mary, acushla, it's your
turn now.' And Mary says, 'A doll with a real head on it,' and there it
was as big as Danny, all dressed in green satin, opening its eyes, if you
plaze."
"Now, me!" roared Danny, squirming in his chair.
"'Daniel Mulcahey Watson, what wud you like?' she says, and Danny
ups and says, 'Chockaluts and candy men and taffy and curren' buns
and ginger bread,' and she had every wan of them."
"'Robert Roblin Watson, him as they call Bugsey, what would you
like?' and 'Patrick Healy Watson, as is called Patsey, what is your
choice?' says she, and--"
In the confusion that ensued while these two young gentlemen thus
referred to stated their modest wishes, their mother came in, tired and
pale, from her hard day's work.
"How is the pink lady to-day, ma?" asked Pearlie, setting Danny down
and beginning operations on Bugsey.
"Oh, she's as swate as ever, an' can talk that soft and kind about
children as to melt the heart in ye."

Danny crept up on his mother's knee "Ma, did she give ye pie?" he
asked, wistfully.
"Yes, me beauty, and she sent this to you wid her love," and Mrs.
Watson took a small piece out of a newspaper from under her cape. It
was the piece that had been set on the kitchen table for Mrs. Watson's
dinner. Danny called them all to have a bite.
"Sure it's the first bite that's always the best, a body might not like it so
well on the second," said Jimmy as he took his, but Bugsey refused to
have any at all. "Wan bite's no good," he said, "it just lets yer see what
yer missin."
"D'ye think she'll ever come to see us, ma?" asked Pearlie, as she set
Danny in the chair to give him his supper. The family was fed in
divisions. Danny was always in Division A.
"Her? Is it?" said Mrs. Watson and they all listened, for Pearlie's story
to-day had far surpassed all her former efforts, and it seemed as if there
must be some hope of its coming true. "Why och! childer dear, d'ye
think a foine lady like her would be bothered with the likes of us? She
is r'adin' her book, and writin' letthers, and thinkin' great thoughts, all
the time. When she was speakin' to me to-day, she looked at me so