Miss Billy : $b A neighborhood storyMcNeely, Marian Hurd
General
Miss Billy : $b A neighborhood story
McNeely, Marian Hurd
Families of clergy -- Fiction; Neighborhoods -- Fiction; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- Fiction
"Very good," said Miss Billy heartily, as Aaron, flushed with emotion
and heat, took his place on the grass. "Aaron, I'm proud of you. If
we all do work of that kind there won't be need for our club always.
Ginevra, have you something to read to us?"
Ginevra twisted her apron about in her small brown hands.
"I didn't write mine," she murmured faintly. "It's only about an
orange peel, anyway."
"Can't you tell us, then?" encouraged Miss Billy.
"There was a man goin' up Cherry Street last night, an' he was eatin'
a orange, an' droppin' the peelin' right on the sidewalk. An' I said
to him 'Mister, please don't drop those on the walk.' And he didn't
pay no attention to me, an' so I walked along behind him an' just
picked them up myself."
Ginevra's patient little story was most touching, and Miss Billy and
Francis exchanged quick glances of sympathy. Marie Jean settled the
folds of her gown, and smiled. "How perfectly lovely," she remarked
to no one in particular.
"Isn't it interesting?" asked Miss Billy proudly. "Frank Murphy, you
come next. What have you done?"
Frank's report was brief and to the point. "There was a dead rat out
in the street. It was big and smelt awful. I poked it with a stick,
but it was so smelly I couldn't take it in my hands. So I brought the
cat out and she et it up."
The fastidious sense of Marie Jean was much offended by the story,
but she bravely accepted the custom of the Romans, and only indicated
her disgust by a slight elevation of the nose, as Frank's successor
was announced, and Launcelot, in a high state of excitement and a
huge red necktie, took the floor.
"Our slop barrel was running over. And ma wanted to give some of it
to Hennesy's chickens, and I wouldn't let her because it ud make
Hennesy's yard look worse than ever. And she said it was the slop
collector's fault and that Cherry Street was always neglekted. And I
said I'll see to it. And I went to see the slop gentleman at the city
hall and told him about the slop running over, and the germs that
were just flying round loose inside, and I spoke fierce and he said
he'd 'tend to it. And I said he'd better and he said he would and he
did. An' we've smelled nice ever since.
"And Johanna who lives with old man Schultzsky threw tin cans into
the street, and we kids waited till night an' then stuck them all
along on the pickets to his fence, an' she don't do it any more. An'
I asked ma not to wash me and Mike in the same water, and she said
all right if I'd carry in fresh water and I did.
"An' there was a grocery boy dropped a egg on our walk, and I made
him clean it up.
"An' I got two kids to sign our pledge, and they'll come to every
meetin' where there's going to be grub."
Launcelot's recital was followed by a chorus of admiration. Francis'
face was hidden, but his shaking shoulders showed his emotion, and
Miss Billy's eyes danced as she patted the small workman upon the
shoulder, exclaiming, "Bravo, Launcelot! You're our Master Constable."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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