Parker Fillmore

“ But when you're not trained to the business, it's fearfully hard to slip your hand deftly into some one else's pocket. Margery bungled, and Janet, impatient at her slowness, loosened slightly her own hold. On the instant, Willie Jones wrenched one arm free, dived into his pocket, and before his captors knew what he was about had pulled up the nickel and popped it into his mouth. ”

“ Naturally. The cakes he had so carefully selected were not hollow inside, but as solid as they looked, and consequently somewhat dry and crumbly. Dryness and crumbliness induce thirst, and thirst, as every one knows, is one of the first things to eat up a man's wealth. Willie Jones swallowed hard, and inquired:
"Would you like a glass of milk, Margery?"
"Would I like a glass of milk!" Margery's tone seemed to add: On my own money, I suppose you mean! Aloud she concluded: "I should say not! I can get milk at home." ”

“ This seemed an irrefutable argument to Margery, but Willie Jones again protested.
"She's a hired girl even if you do love her."
"She's not, I say!" roared Margery. "And, Willie Jones, you stop arguing! You're making me sicker! Just see how my head wobbles!" She wobbled it shakily a moment to show, and then demanded sharply: "Now, then, Willie Jones, is Effie a hired girl or isn't she?"
Many a man before Willie Jones has been forced to make a choice between facts and a lady's increasing illness on the one [41] hand and fancy and her smiles on the other. ”

“ It's a turrible thing to bunch a decent, hardworkin' girl with a set o' tramps like them neighborhood hired [46] girls. I just tell you a girl has to be mighty careful nowadays what she lets folks call her. Even if she's a perfect lady, they're only too quick to take advantage of her. Especially these here men and boys."
"You just bet they are!" Margery agreed heartily. "They're always trying to get the best of us! But just let me tell you one thing: You needn't think I'm not going to get that nickel, because I am!" ”

“ That's only Effie's bluff. Listen: [15] I'm going out blackberrying. There are just dead loads of great big ripe ones on the graveyard patch. My mother'll give me ten cents if I bring her back two quarts."
Margery looked at the tin pail longingly. She, too, would go blackberrying, but she realized that home was the best place for sick folk.
"Aw, come on," Willie urged. "You're not going to be sick. I bet anything you're not."
Confidence begets confidence, and, looking at Willie Jones's tin pail, Margery began to wonder whether, after all, Effie's prophecy might not prove a false one. ”

“ And Tom says, 'Effie, yir a born fool! What do you think them children care for you?' he says. 'Only what they can get out of you,' he says. And," concluded Effie, her voice again choked with tears, "I am a fool and Tom's right. They don't care nuthin' for me and I'm only the hired girl!"
"Who's Tom, I'd like to know?" Willie Jones demanded offensively.
"Who's Tom?" echoed Effie. It was plain that insult was being added to injury. "Why, Tom, me young friend, [22] is Thomas McGinniss, Conthractor and Builder, that built the house yir living in and every house on your street. ”

“ What'll I do if she's not there? There's no one else knows how to make me thr'up like Effie! She always does it for me. Why, I'll just die, I know I will, if she's [39] not there!"
"I'm sorry, Margery, but even if she is there, I don't think she'll do anything for you this time. She's pretty mad at both of us."
"Willie Jones," Margery said, with sudden determination, "you've got to do something. You've just got to!" ”

“ Yes, Willie had heard him, and Margery was certainly right in intimating that the young gravedigger was exceptionally fluent in cuss words. With cause and effect so clearly demonstrated, Willie Jones had no further argument against Margery's conception of a prompt and [36] well-deserved judgment. He was silent a moment, then went back to something else.
"So you think you oughtn't to have gone into the blackberry patch at all?"
"Why, of course I think so! I know so! Wasn't there a sign up not to? Why, taking blackberries when there's a sign up is not much better than downright stealing!" ”

“ Well, we'll Willie-Jones him, all right, before we're through with him!"
Now, it has been said that for every great cause a leader springs up. This, no doubt, is also true of lesser causes. At any rate, the businesslike manner in which Miss Janet McFadden proceeded at once to roll up her sleeves was enough to convince one that the cause of Margery's [61] nickel had called forth its champion—a champion, be it added, not only willing but able.
"Lay down your papers, Rosie," was Janet's first command, "and put a stone on them so's they won't blow away. That's right. Now I guess we're ready." ”

“ In fact, she almost did forget them once or twice at moments when Janet McFadden was busy sucking the jaw-breaker. But the instant it became Rosie's turn to suck, Janet was back again on the old subject.
"Ha, ha! Don't you think I know 'em?" The 'em of Janet's acquaintance were, of course, Willie Jones and his kind. "Oh, I tell you, I know 'em just as well! [71] They're all the same, every last one of them, always getting the best of us, and then going off by themselves and having a good time! ”

“ Heigho! [74]
"And lookee here, Margery, here are all your jaw-breakers. I ain't et one—honest, I ain't."
Margery looked, and, lo, in his hand lay four jaw-breakers, three of them as black and shiny as the moment they had left the little candy store, the fourth sucked down only to the pink.
"I couldn't help tasting one of them, Margery, but I only sucked it a few minutes—honest, I did. And here," Willie Jones continued, offering her a little bag, "is a cake I bought for you with my last cent." ”

“ Margery heard distinctly. Two cents for cakes, two cents for milk. Good! That left him one cent of his own money.
Willie Jones leisurely finished the last crumb of cake and drained his glass.
"Well, so long, Margery. I guess I better be going. I got to see a fella down in East Maplewood."
"Give me my nickel, Willie, or I'll have to go with you. I told you I would."
"Well, of course, Margery, you can come down to East Maplewood if you want to. But it's pretty far." He spoke as though the possible fatigue to Margery really concerned him.
Margery straightened her lips, and fell [56] into step. ”

“ A young gravedigger—if it be correct to call the offspring of an old gravedigger a young gravedigger—caught sight of the [28] poachers just at this moment, and, shouting out, "Hey, there! You!" started toward them down the knoll. The incredible speed with which the poachers fled seemed to give the young gravedigger an erroneous idea of the fear that his presence inspired. ”

“ But—but—but she was in for half the profits! . . . [27] Women are so prone nowadays to prefer some petty material gain to the grand old-fashioned whatchemaycallit.
"I think we're going to get our two full quarts," Margery remarked amiably. Of course she was amiable. She had every reason to be amiable.
Willie Jones, who by this time had fallen silent, made no comment.
"Don't you think so?" Margery pursued sweetly.
"Huh!" grunted Willie Jones.
When the tin pail was about full an accident happened to Margery. ”

“ In payment he offered the [52] German lady a dime. Margery looked significantly at the change as the German lady counted it out; but Willie quite mechanically slipped it all into his pocket.
The German lady beamed on them kindly.
"Say, yous two can sit down at one of them little tables, if yous want to, and eat your cakes. By rights, only ten-cent orders can sit down, but I'll let yous this time."
"Thank you," Willie Jones said politely. "That'll be much nicer."
So they sat them down at an ice-cream table, and Willie at once proffered Margery his open bag.
"Don't you want a cake?" ”