Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/33

The Undoing of Dinney Crockett and wistfully told the man called George all about "de gang," and the lives they lived and the things they did.

Then, being unable to fathom his indefinite and unknown unhappiness, he wailed aloud that he was hungry. The sad-eyed woman fed him until she feared he would burst, and said the air was doing him a world of good. Dinney had been used to eating whenever the spirit moved him, and it seemed to him a ridiculous custom to sit down and devour things at stated times, whether you were hungry or not.

But after his meal his melancholy returned to him. What with the prickliness of his new clothes and his secret desire to indulge in a quiet smoke, he suffered untold agonies.

In his loneliness and misery he disappeared stableward, and was not seen again until dinner-time.

The poor little sad-eyed woman was worried to distraction about him. When he shambled back to the house she called him over to her and took him up on her knee, and petted him as few mothers pet even their 21