"
"But you can't put them out like this, with that little baby and no
place to go!"
"There's the Charity Organization, and the Alms House," suggested Mrs.
Ivy, wiping her eyes through sympathy.
"I'd hate to drive 'em to that," said the man doggedly, "but I got my
own family to consider, and I ain't what I once was, since I lost my
eye."
"Poor man," sighed Mrs. Ivy; "how fortunate It was the left one! How
did it happen?"
"Shot out," said the man, nothing loath to enter into particulars. "In
a scrap between a pair of young swells that was hangin' round my
place. Shot out in cold blood when I wasn't lookin'."
"But, my good man, didn't you prosecute?" asked Mrs. Ivy. "You know we
have a Legal Aid Society for just such cases as yours."
[Illustration: Maria began to cry, and forgot to jolt the Boarder]
"Yes'm, but one of the young gentlemen skipped the country, lit out
fer foreign parts, took to the tall timber, as you might say."
"But he was not the one who did the shooting, was he?" asked Miss
Lady, a sudden bright spot on either cheek, and the steady
determination in her eye that had been Flathers' undoing.
"I ain't never been able to say which one done it," said the man,
faltering under her steady gaze.
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