Boys -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Slums -- Fiction
'Three cheers for the missis!' sang out Kiddo Cook as she came through
the press. 'I said 'e'd 'ave a bob or two for you, didn't I?' Josh
Perrott, indeed, was rich--a capitalist of five pounds. For a sovereign
a side had been put up, and his backer had put on a sovereign for him at
three to one. So that now it became him to stand beer to many
sympathisers. Also, he felt that the missis should have some part in the
celebration, for was it not her injury that he had avenged on Sally
Green's brother? So Hannah Perrott, pleased though timorous, was hauled
away with the rest to Mother Gapp's.
Here she sat by Josh's side for an hour. Once or twice she thought of
Looey, but with native inertness she let the thought slip. Perhaps
Dicky would be back, and at any rate it was hard if she must not take
half an hour's relaxation once in a way. At last came Dicky, urgent
perplexity in his face, looking in at the door. Josh, minded to be
generous all round, felt for a penny.
'Mother,' said Dicky, plucking at her arm, 'Pigeony Poll's at 'ome,
nussin' Looey; she told me to tell you to come at once.'
Pigeony Poll? What right had she in the room? The ghost of Hannah
Perrott's respectability rose in resentment. She supposed she must go.
She arose, mystified, and went, with Dicky at her skirts.
Pigeony Poll sat by the window with the baby in her arms, and pale
misgiving in her dull face. 'I--I come in, Mrs Perrott, mum,' she said,
with a hush in her thick voice, 'I come in 'cos I see you goin' out, an'
I thought the baby'd be alone. She--she's 'ad a sort o' fit--all stiff
an' blue in the face and grindin' 'er little mouth. She's left auf
now--but I--I dunno what to make of 'er. She's so--so--'
Hannah Perrott stared blankly, and lifted the child, whose arm dropped
and hung. The wizen age had gone from Looey's face, and the lids were
down on the strained eyes; her pale lips lay eased of the old
pinching--even parted in a smile. For she looked in the face of the
Angel that plays with the dead children.
Hannah Perrott's chin fell. 'Lor',' she said bemusedly, and sat on the
bed.
An odd croaking noise broke in jerks from Pigeony Poll as she crept from
the room, with her face bowed in the bend of her arm, like a weeping
schoolboy. Dicky stared, confounded.... Josh came and gazed stupidly,
with his mouth open, walking tip-toe. But at a word from Kiddo Cook, who
came in his tracks, he snatched the little body and clattered off to the
dispensary, to knock up the young student.
* * * * *
The rumour went in the Jago that Josh Perrott was in double luck. For
here was insurance money without a doubt. But in truth that was a thing
the Perrotts had neglected.
* * * * *
Hannah Perrott felt a listless relief; Josh felt nothing in particular,
except that there was no other thing to be done, and that Mother Gapp's
would be a cheerful place to finish the day in, and keep up the missis's
pecker.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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