eyes arrested her. Tommy forgot to cry, in sheer amazement at what she
was about to do. Ashamed of herself, she threw the poker aside, and
taking advantage of Mr. Stubbins's crouching position, she thrust him
suddenly backward into the closet. The manoeuver was a brilliant one,
for while Mr. Stubbins was unsteadily separating himself from the
debris into which he had been cast, Lovey Mary slammed the door and
locked it. Then she picked up Tommy and fled out of the house and
across the yard.

Mrs. Wiggs was sitting on her back porch pretending to knit, but in
truth absorbed in a wild game of tag which the children were having on
the commons. "That's right," she was calling excitedly--"that's right,
Chris Hazy! You kin ketch as good as any of 'em, even if you have got
a peg-stick." But when she caught sight of Mary's white, distressed
face and Tommy's streaming eyes, she dropped her work and held out her
arms. When Mary had finished her story Mrs. Wiggs burst forth:

"An' to think I run her up ag'in' this! Ain't men deceivin'? Now I'd
'a' risked Mr. Stubbins myself fer the askin'. It's true he was a
widower, an' ma uster allays say, 'Don't fool with widowers, grass nor
sod.' But Mr. Stubbins was so slick-tongued! He told me yesterday he
had to take liquor sometime fer his war enjury."

"But, Mrs. Wiggs, what must we do?" asked Lovey Mary, too absorbed in
the present to be interested in the past.

"Do? Why, we got to git Miss Hazy out of this here hole. It ain't no
use consultin' her; I allays have said talkin' to Miss Hazy was like
pullin' out bastin'-threads: you jes take out what you put in. Me an'
you has got to think out a plan right here an' now, then go to work