Anne of Ingleside - L. M. Montgomery [91]
Nan did not like the smell of the fishing house or the groups of dirty children who were playing and fighting and yelling on the sands. They looked curiously at Nan when she stopped to ask them which was Six-toed Jimmy’s house.
‘That one over there,’ said a boy pointing. ‘What’s your business with him?’
‘Thank you,’ said Nan, turning away.
‘Have ye got no more manners than that?’ yelled a girl. ‘Too stuck-up to answer a civil question!’
The boy got in front of her.
‘See that house back of Thomases?’ he said. ‘I’ve got a sea-serpent in it, and I’ll lock you up in it if you don’t tell me what you want with Six-toed Jimmy.’
‘Come now, Miss Proudy,’ taunted a big girl. ‘You’re from the Glen, and the Glenners all think they’re the cheese. Answer Bill’s question.’
‘If you don’t, look out,’ said another boy. ‘I’m going to drown some kittens and I’ll quite likely pop you in, too.’
‘If you’ve got a dime about you I’ll sell you a tooth,’ said a black-browed girl, grinning. ‘I had one pulled yesterday.’
‘I haven’t got a dime and your tooth wouldn’t be of any use to me,’ said Nan, plucking up a little spirit. ‘You let me alone.’
‘None of your lip,’ said the black-browed.
Nan started to run. The sea-serpent boy stuck out a foot and tripped her up. She fell her length on the tide-rippled sand.
The others screamed with laughter.
‘You won’t hold your head so high now, I reckon,’ said the black-browed. ‘Strutting about here with your red scallops!’
Then someone exclaimed, ‘There’s Blue Jack’s boat coming in,’ and away they all ran.
The black cloud had dropped lower and every ruby pool was grey.
Nan picked herself up. Her dress was plastered with sand and her stockings were soiled. But she was free from her tormentors. Would these be her playmates in the future?
She must not cry… she must not! She climbed the rickety board steps that led up to Six-toed Jimmy’s door. Like all the Harbour Mouth houses, Six-toed Jimmy’s was raised on blocks of wood to be out of the reach of any unusually high tide, and the space underneath it was filled with a medley of broken dishes, empty cans, old lobster traps, and all kinds of rubbish. The door was open, and Nan looked into a kitchen the like of which she had never seen in her life. The bare floor was dirty, the ceiling was stained and smoked, the sink was full of dirty dishes. The remains of a meal were on the rickety old wooden table, and horrid big black flies were swarming over it. A woman with an untidy mop of greyish hair was sitting on a rocker nursing a fat lump of a baby… a baby grey with dirt.
‘My sister,’ thought Nan.
There was no sign of Cassie or Six-toed Jimmy, for which latter fact Nan felt grateful.
‘Who are you and what do you want?’ said the woman rather ungraciously.
She did not ask Nan in but Nan walked in. It was beginning to rain outside and a peal of thunder made the house shake. Nan knew she must say what she had come to say before her courage failed her, or she would turn and run from that dreadful house and from that dreadful baby and those dreadful flies.
‘I want to see Cassie, please,’ she said. ‘I have something important to tell her.’
‘Indeed, now!’ said the woman. ‘It must be important from the size of you. Well, Cass isn’t home. Her dad took her to the Upper Glen for a ride, and with this storm coming up there’s no telling when they’ll be back. Sit down.’
Nan sat down on a broken chair. She had known the Harbour Mouth folks were poor, but she had not known any of them were like this. Mrs Tom Fitch in the Glen was poor, but Mrs Tom Fitch’s house was as neat and tidy as Ingleside. Of course, every one knew that Six-toed Jimmy drank up everything he made. And this was to be her home henceforth!
‘Anyhow, I’ll try to clean it up,’ thought Nan