Page:Mehalah 1920.djvu/72

62 bequeathed her no money; she could not excuse Elijah for having taken all they left, without considering her. She found a satisfaction in discharging her wrongs on others. She was a saving woman, and spent little money on her personal adornment. "What coin I drop," she was wont to say, "I drop in rum, and smuggled rum is cheap." But though an article is cheap, a great consumption of it may cause the item to be a serious one; and it was so with Mrs. De Witt. The vessel to which she acted as captain, steward, and cook, was named the Pandora. The vicar was wont to remark that it was a "Pandora's" box full of all gusts but minus gentle Zephyr. "Will you take a chair?" she said obsequiously to Phœbe, placing the chair for her, after having first breathed on the seat and wiped it with her sleeve. Then turning to Mehalah, she asked roughly, "Well, Glory! how is that old fool, your mother?" "Better than your manners," replied Mehalah. "I am glad you are come. Glory," said Mrs. De Witt, "I want to have it out with you. What do you mean by coming here of a night, and carrying off my son when he ought to be under his blankets in his bunk? I won't have it. He shall keep proper hours. Such conduct is not decent. What do you think of that?" she asked, seating herself on the other side of the table, and addressing Phœbe, but leaving Mehalah standing. "What do you think of a girl coming here after nightfall, and asking my lad to go off for a row with her all in the dark, and the devil knows whither they went, and the mischief they were after. It is not respectable, is it?" "George should not have gone when she asked him," said the girl. "Dear sackalive! she twists him round her little finger. He no more dare deny her anything than he dare defy me. But I will have my boy respectable, I can promise you. I combed his head well for him when he came home, I did by cock! He shall not do the thing again." "Look here, mother," remonstrated George; "wash our dirty linen in private."

"Indeed!" exclaimed Mrs. De Witt. "That is strange