sleep-dust. Tonight, however, he was awake and talkative.

"Ain't I dot no muvver?" he asked.

"No," said Lovey Mary, after a pause.

"Didn't I never had no muvver?"

Lovey Mary sat him up in her lap and looked into his round, inquiring
eyes. Her very love for him hardened her heart against the one who had
wronged him.

"Yes, darling, you had a mother once, but she was a bad mother, a
mean, bad, wicked mother. I hate her--hate her!" Lovey Mary's voice
broke in a sob.

"Ma--ry; aw, Ma--ry!" called Miss Hazy up the stairs. "You'll have to
come down here to Chris. He's went to sleep with all his clothes on
'crost my bed, an' I can't git him up."

Lovey Mary tucked Tommy under the cover and went to Miss Hazy's
assistance.

"One night I had to set up all night 'cause he wouldn't git up,"
complained Miss Hazy, in hopelessly injured tones.

Lovey Mary wasted no time in idle coaxing. She seized a broom and
rapped the sleeper sharply on the legs. His peg-stick was insensible
to this insult, but one leg kicked a feeble protest. In vain Lovey
Mary tried violent measures; Chris simply shifted his position and