At last she stops, and claps me on the back.
'You're a darlin' old girl, Peck!' says she, 'and your friends are my
friends. Stop where you are, and let me speak a word to the young woman
on the trunk.'
"After a little while she comes back, and says, 'I've done it, Peck!
She's mighty close, and as proud as Lucifer; but she's only a
dressmaker, for all that.' 'A dressmaker!' says I; 'how did you find
out she was a dressmaker?' 'Why, I looked at her forefinger, in
course,' says Peggy, 'and saw the pricks of the needle on it, and soon
made her talk a bit after that. She knows fancy-work and cuttin'
out--would ye ever have thought it? And I'll show her how to give the
workhouse the go-by to-morrow, if she only holds out, and keeps in her
senses. Stop where you are, Peck! I'm going to make Jubber put his
dirty hand into his pocket and pull out some money; and that's a sight
worth stoppin' to see any day in the week.'
"I waited as she told me; and she called for Jubber, just as if he'd
been her servant; and he come out of the circus. 'I want ten shillings
advance of wages for that lady on the trunk,' says Peggy. He laughed at
her. 'Show your ugly teeth at me again,' says she, 'and I'll box your
ears. I've my light hand for a horse's mouth, and my heavy hand for a
man's cheek; you ought to know that by this time! Pull out the ten
shillings.
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