of his knife against a broken tooth. Mrs Sucksby said,
''That''s enough from you, or I''ll knock your bloody head off. I won''t have Sue made nervous.''
I said at once, that if I thought I should be made nervous by an infant like John Vroom, I should cut my throat. John said he should like to cut it for me. Then Mrs Sucksby leaned from her chair and hit him—just as she had once leaned, on that other night, all that time before, and hit poor Flora; and as she had leaned and hit others, in the years in between—all for my sake.
John looked for a second as if he should like to strike her back; then he looked at me, as if he should like to strike me harder. Then Dainty shifted in her seat, and he turned and struck her.
Beats me,'' he said when he had done it, ''why everyone is so down on me.''
Dainty had started to cry. She reached for his sleeve. ''Never mind their hard words, Johnny,'' she said. ''I sticks to you, don''t I?''
''You sticks, all right,'' he answered. ''Like shit to a shovel.'' He pushed her hand away, and she sat rocking in her chair, huddled over the dog-skin coat and weeping into her stitches.
''Hush now, Dainty,'' said Mrs Sucksby. ''You are spoiling your nice work.''
She cried for a minute. Then one of the boys at the brazier burned his finger on a hot coin, and started off swearing; and she screamed with laughter. John put another peanut to his mouth and spat the shell upon the floor.