thing I grabbed, and the turkey pulled. Honest, it was the turkey pulled." He turned to Sinton. "You tell her! Didn't the turkey pull? I didn't know its tail was loose, did I?"
"I don't think you did, Billy," said Sinton.
Billy stared into Margaret's cold face. "Sometimes at night Belle sits on the floor, and I lay my head in her lap. I could pull up a chair and lay my head in your lap. Like this, I mean." Billy pulled up a chair, climbed on it and laid his head on Margaret's lap. Then he shut his eyes again. Margaret could have looked little more repulsed if he had been a snake.
Billy was soon up.
"My, but your lap is hard," he said. "And you are a good deal fatter 'an Belle, too!" He slid from the chair and came back to the middle of the room.
"Oh, but I wisht he wasn't dead!" he cried. The flood broke and Billy screamed in desperation.
Out of the night a soft, warm young figure flashed through the door and with a swoop caught him in her arms. She dropped into a chair, nestled him closely, and drooped her fragrant brown head over his little bullet-eyed red one, and rocked softly as she crooned over him—
"Billy, boy, where have you been?
Oh, I have been to seek a wife,
She's the joy of my life,
But then she's a young thing and she can't leave her mammy!"
Billy gripped her with a death grip. Elnora wiped his eyes, kissed his face, swayed and sang.
