"Thet law agin lettin' hawgs run loose in the woods was plumb hard on some folks," Peter remarked to Maria when the sign was finally in place, "but I reckon hit'll do us some good." "Peaches are powerful good for hawgs," Maria replied with unexpected brilliancy. "Pappy uster tote in great loads of 'em an' our hawgs got plumb fat 'fore killin' time." "I ain't goin' ter tote no peaches," returned Peter. "Ef Ambrose was bigger," Maria commenced, then paused at seeing a new expression come over Peter's grim face. It was the dawning of his great idea. "I'll git yo' a bigger young-un," he exclaimed with more vigor than was his wont. "Hit won't cost nothing ter keep, fer I'll git board money fer keepin' hit an' hit'll work ter pay fer hit's keep." "Whar'll yo' git hit?" "Never yo' mind whar. Jes' hol' yore tongue an' do what I tells yo'." Very soon after that conversation Peter Grimes took his writhing, ominous way to a near-by city. When he returned, two children accompanied him, one a boy of nine years, the other a tiny girl. That was the beginning of the industry which for years permitted the Grimes household to flourish amid the luxury of idleness and to lay by a snug sum of money for some undefined purpose which even Peter could not explain. CHAPTER II IN THE HOME OF THE MONSTER "For He shall give His angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways."--Ps. xci, 11 But the little girl was neither so young nor so untutored as her diminutive size indicated. "My name is Mollie and I'm six years old, going on seven," she told Maria in clear, precise English. "My Mama went to sleep and did not wake up and a big man came and said he was my Papa. He looked at my Mama and cried. Then lots of folks came and everybody went riding in car'ges. But only my Papa came back. And after while a lady came and my Papa told me to go with her and be a good girl. "And that lady took me away, way off in a real train. And after we came to a big, big place with lots of seats in it she told me to sit still while she talked to a cross man with a funny mustache. And that man said she was a fool and to give the money to him. And the lady said, 'her Papa will come back.' But the man said, 'Papas who go 'sploring don't come back.'