"Don't cry, alannah. Maybe Miss Barner didn't hear yez
at all at all. Ladies like her do be thinkin' great
thoughts and never knowin' what's forninst them. Mrs.
Francis never knows what ye'r sayin' to her at the toime;
ye could say 'chew tobacco, chew tobacco' all ye liked
before her; but what for did ye sass owld lady McGuire?
Haven't I towld ye time out of mind that a soft answer
turns away wrath, and forbye makes them madder than
anything ye could say to them?"

Bugsey tearfully declared he would never go to Band of
Hope again. Taffy or no taffy, he could not bear to face
her.

"Go tell her, Bugsey man," Pearlie urged. "Tell her ye'r
sorry. I w'uldn't mind tellin' Miss Barner anything. Even
if I'd kilt a man and hid his corp, she's the very one
I'd git to help me to give me a h'ist with him into the
river, she's that good and swate."

The subject of this doubtful compliment had come down so
early that morning believing that Mrs. McGuire was confined
to her bed with rheumatism. Seeing the object of her
solicitude up and about, she would have returned without
knowing what had happened; but Bugsey's remarkable musical
turn decided her that Mrs. McGuire was suffering from
worse than a rheumatic knee. She went into the little
house, and heard all about it.

When she went home a little later she found Robert Roblin