wid all deh bringin' up she had, how could she?" moaningly she
asked of her son. "Wid all deh talkin' wid her I did an' deh t'ings I
tol' her to remember? When a girl is bringed up deh way I bringed up
Maggie, how kin she go teh deh devil?"

Jimmie was transfixed by these questions. He could not conceive how
under the circumstances his mother's daughter and his sister could have
been so wicked.

His mother took a drink from a squdgy bottle that sat on the table.
She continued her lament.

"She had a bad heart, dat girl did, Jimmie. She was wicked teh deh
heart an' we never knowed it."

Jimmie nodded, admitting the fact.

"We lived in deh same house wid her an' I brought her up an' we never
knowed how bad she was."

Jimmie nodded again.

"Wid a home like dis an' a mudder like me, she went teh deh bad," cried
the mother, raising her eyes.

One day, Jimmie came home, sat down in a chair and began to wriggle
about with a new and strange nervousness. At last he spoke
shamefacedly.

"Well, look-a-here, dis t'ing queers us! See? We're queered! An'
maybe it 'ud be better if I--well, I t'ink I kin look 'er up an'--maybe
it 'ud be better if I fetched her home an'--"

The mother started from her chair and broke forth into a storm of
passionate anger.

"What! Let 'er come an' sleep under deh same roof wid her mudder agin!
Oh, yes, I will, won't I? Sure? Shame on yehs, Jimmie Johnson, for
sayin' such a t'ing teh yer own mudder--teh yer own mudder! Little did
I t'ink when yehs was a babby playin' about me feet dat ye'd grow up
teh say sech a t'ing teh yer mudder--yer own mudder. I never taut--"

Sobs choked her and interrupted her reproaches.

"Dere ain't nottin' teh raise sech hell about," said Jimmie. "I on'y
says it 'ud be better if we keep dis t'ing dark, see? It queers us!
See?"

His mother laughed a laugh that seemed to ring through the city and be
echoed and re-echoed by countless other laughs. "Oh, yes, I will,
won't I! Sure!"

"Well, yeh must take me fer a damn fool," said Jimmie, indignant at his
mother for mocking him. "I didn't say we'd make 'er inteh a little tin
angel, ner nottin', but deh way it is now she can queer us! Don' che
see?"

"Aye, she'll git tired of deh life atter a while an' den she'll wanna
be a-comin' home, won' she, deh beast! I'll let 'er in den, won' I?"

"Well, I didn' mean none of dis prod'gal bus'ness anyway," explained
Jimmie.

"It wasn't no prod'gal d