_Miss Asphyxia_ and her contemporaries thought that a child was “‘pretty much dead loss the first three or four years; but after that they’d more’n pay, if they’s fetched up right.’” _Miss Asphyxia_ intended that _Tina_ should be “‘fetched up right.’” Good old _Sol_, her hired man, suggested that perhaps _Tina_ cried at night because she was lonesome. “‘All sorts of young critters is,’” he argued; “‘Puppies is; kittens mew when ye take ’em from the cats. Ye see they’s used to other critters; and it’s sort o’ cold like, bein’ alone is.’” _Miss Asphyxia_ gave a sniff of contempt. “‘Well, she’ll have to get used to it. I guess ’twon’t kill her.’” When poor _Tina_ broke a saucer and failed to make quick confession, that is, to speak with accuracy, when she did really and truly let a lie slip over her lips, we can imagine what an awful thing it seemed to _Miss Asphyxia_. She proceeded to cure her of lying by scouring out her mouth. Putting some soap and sand on a rag and grasping the child’s head under her arm, she rubbed the mixture through her mouth with the energy of an insulted prophetess. “‘See now if you will tell me another lie,’” she said, pushing the child from her, and feeling that her own conscience was quite clear, whatever might be the spiritual condition of the culprit. But things were coming to a crisis. Explaining the final fuss, _Sam_ said: “‘Wal, ye see, the young un was spicy; and when Miss Sphyxy was down on her too hard, the child, she fit her,--ye know a rat’ll bite, a hen will peck, and a worm will turn,--and finally it come to a fight between ’em.’” _Tina’s_ brother did not fare much better than did the little girl. His cruel master would not allow him to go to visit his sister any more than _Miss Asphyxia_ would have allowed him to come in if he had arrived, for she would “‘Just as soon have the red dragon in the Revelations come into her house as a boy!’” Finally _Harry_ ran away, went to _Tina’s_ window in the night and told her to come with him. They went off together, wandering in search of some good people to give them a home, an event in which they had a firm faith. They went along the roads and through the fields, playing that they were _Hansel_ and _Gretel_ in the story. They had the adventure of coming upon an Indian encampment with a little tent and an old woman weaving baskets. With her they dipped succotash with a clean clam-shell from a wooden trough and were content and comforted. _Harry_ knelt in prayer before lying down in the tent and this act made the eyes of the Indian woman shine, for she, it seems, was the relic of a long since Christianized tribe. When he was through she said: “‘Me praying Indian; me much love Jesus.’” The next morning, however, the heathen husband came and drove the children away.