Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/171

Instruments of Eros was left behind but his aquiline eye was on it.

And things went well, and business throve with Hungry. In fact, as time on, he even took unto himself a mate.

She was as diminutive, as thin of leg, and as dirtily unkempt as Hungry himself. But one could see by the way in which he laid his choicest portions of refuse banana and bruised pineapple before her, that to him she was as a goddess on a pedestal, and a thing to kneel to, and worship, and adore.

So plain was it that Hungry had a "stiddy" that envious stories went about through the busy little band, and even certain taunts were thrown out.

But none of these disturbed either Hungry or his sweetheart Brickie, who, by the way, was seen rapidly to gain flesh under Hungry's solicitous eye.

And as spring glided into summer all life changed for Hungry Dooley. A rose mist seemed to hang over the river, and a happy golden halo over the world. He did not know what it meant, but the rattle of the 159