"
"Oh!" gasped Bess.
"And what is it to _you_, Miss?" demanded the woman, threateningly.
"It was cruel to beat her," declared Bess, bravely, but unwisely.
"Is that so? is that so?" cried the virago, advancing on Bess with the
evident purpose of using her broad, parboiled palm on the visitor, just
as she would use it on one of her own children. "I'll l'arn ye not to
come here with your impudence!"
But Walter stepped in her way, covering Bess' frightened retreat. Walter
was a good-sized boy.
"Hold on," he said, good-naturedly. "We won't quarrel about it. Just tell
us where the child is to be found."
"I ain't seen her for four days and nights, that I haven't," declared
the woman.
That was all there was to be got out of her. Nan and her friends went
away, much troubled. They went again to Mother Beasley's to inquire, with
like result. When they told that kind but careworn woman what the child's
aunt had said, she shook her head and spoke lugubriously.
"She was probably drunk when she treated the child so. If she destroyed
Inez basket and used the money Inez always saved back to buy a new supply
of bouquets, she fair put the poor thing out o' business."
"Oh, dear!" said Nan. "And we can't find her on the square."
"Poor thing! I wisht she had come here for a bite--I do.
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