Page:A Child of the Jago - Arthur Morrison.djvu/29

 backward I'm quite wore out; more'n ten months old an' don't even crawl yut. It's a never-endin' trouble, is children."

She sighed, and presently stretched herself on the bed. The boy rose, and carrying his little sister with care, for she was dozing, essayed to look through the grimy window. The dull flush still spread overhead, but Jago Court lay darkling below, with scarce a sign of the ruinous back yards that edged it on this and the opposite sides, and nothing but blackness between.

The boy returned to his box, and sat. Then he said, "I don't's'pose father's 'avin' a sleep outside, eh?"

The woman sat up with some show of energy. "Wot?" she said sharply. "Sleep out in the street like them low Ranns an' Learys? I should 'ope not. It's bad enough livin' 'ere at all an' me being used to different things once, an' all. You ain't seen 'im outside, 'a've ye?"

"No, I ain't seen 'im; I jist looked in