"
"I guess he hasn't GOT any stockings half the time," said big Stashie
scornfully. "I guess his stepfather drinks 'em up."
"How CAN he drink up stockings!" asked Molly, opening her round eyes
very wide.
"Sh! You mustn't ask. Little girls shouldn't know about such things,
should they, Betsy?"
"No INDEED," said Betsy, looking mysterious. As a matter of fact, she
herself had no idea what Stashie meant, but she looked wise and said
nothing.
Some of the boys had squatted down near the rocks for a game of marbles
now.
"Well, anyhow," said Molly resentfully, "I don't care what his
stepfather does to his stockings. I wish 'Lias would wear 'em to school.
And lots of times he hasn't anything on under those horrid old overalls
either! I can see his bare skin through the torn places."
"I wish he didn't have to sit so near me," said Betsy complainingly.
"He's SO dirty."
"Well, I don't want him near ME, either!" cried all the other little
girls at once. Ralph glanced up at them frowning, from where he knelt
with his middle finger crooked behind a marble ready for a shot. He
looked as he always did, very rough and half-threatening. "Oh, you girls
make me sick!" he said. He sent his marble straight to the mark,
pocketed his opponent's, and stood up, scowling at the little mothers.
"I guess if you had to live the way he does you'd be dirty! Half the
time he don't get anything to eat before he comes to school, and if my
mother didn't put up some extra for him in my box he wouldn't get any
lunch either.
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