"Do what, kiddie?" asked the girl in a good-natured surprise.
"Everything!" said Betsy, compendiously. "Everything! Wash the dishes,
tend the booth; YOU can go dance! I'll do it for twenty cents."
The eyes of the girl and the man met in high amusement. "My! Aren't we
up and coming!" said the man. "You're most as big as a pint-cup, aren't
you?" he said to Betsy.
The little girl flushed--she detested being laughed at--but she looked
straight into the laughing eyes. "I'm ten years old today," she said,
"and I can wash dishes as well as anybody." She spoke with dignity.
The young man burst out into a great laugh.
"Great kid, what!" he said to the girl, and then, "Say, Annie, why not?
Your mother won't be here for an hour. The kid can keep folks from
walking off with the dope and ..."
"I'll do the dishes, too," repeated Betsy, trying hard not to mind being
laughed at, and keeping her eyes fixed steadily on the tickets to
Hillsboro.
"Well, by gosh," said the young man, laughing. "Here's our chance,
Annie, for fair! Come along!"
The girl laughed, too, out of high spirits. "Wouldn't Momma be crazy!"
she said hilariously. "But she'll never know. Here, you cute kid, here's
my apron." She took off her long apron and tied it around Betsy's neck.
"There's the soap, there's the table. You stack the dishes up on that
counter."
She was out of the little gate in the counter in a twinkling, just as
Molly, in answer to a beckoning gesture from Betsy, came in.
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