"You'd better go, mother," said Chaplin glancing at his wife. He knew that she did not care much about the Browns. They were not nice people to know, certainly, but Annie had taken a great liking for his poor Winny, and that fact went far to reconcile Chaplin to being neighbourly and civil to them, and that was why he urged his wife to go and see the man's injured foot. Being thus urged, she had no excuse for holding back, and so determined to make the best of matters. She found her neighbour's room much more clean and tidy than she expected, considering how Annie had been brought up. Brown himself was a rough blustering fellow, much given to swearing in an ordinary way; but he looked as sheepish as a schoolboy now, for he had a vague notion that the Chaplins were "stuck up" though they were so poor. But he was ruled by his daughter Annie, much as Chaplin was by his Winny, and as she said Mrs. Chaplin must see his foot, he had submitted. "It's very good of you to come and look at a cove like me," he said when Mrs. Chaplin wished him "good-evening." And the meek way he spoke almost made his visitor laugh, and dispelled all her fear of the man. "You hurt your foot in the docks, I suppose?" she said, not knowing what else she ought to say. It was perhaps about the worst question she could have put, for he broke into a torrent of oaths, blaming the foreman for being in such a hurry and so causing the accident. It was not Rutter, but another man something like him, and Brown was very bitter about the whole matter. "Hush, father, hush!" interposed Annie. "I told you to mind how you behaved, didn't I? Don't mind him, Mrs. Chaplin, his bark is a deal worse than his bite," she added turning to her visitor. Mrs. Chaplin half wished she had not come, but Annie was so anxious for her to see the injured foot, that she could not go back without looking at it. "Dear me! What have you been doing to it?" she said when the rag was removed and she saw the inflamed state it was in. "Ointment," said Annie laconically. "I don't think it can suit it, then," said Mrs. Chaplin. "Go down and tell Letty to give you all the warm water there is in the kettle. It must be well washed and bathed before we can do anything else to it. What a pity you did not go to the hospital and have it dressed," said Mrs. Chaplin when Annie had gone down for the water. "It would have been almost well by this time if you had done that." "And what was to become of the little un while I was there?" he demanded almost angrily. "The little one!" repeated Mrs. Chaplin in some amazement. "Aye, my Annie I mean. What would become of her if I wasn't here to take care of her?" Annie had used the same words in reference to her father when she had been asked to go to Sunday-school on Sunday afternoons. "Who would take care of daddy if I went away and left him by himself?" she had asked when Winny had suggested that there was a class for big girls at the mission Sunday-school.