I'm short of change
just now--not being as rich as Queen Victory. There's her picture
up there--the one with the blue sash and diamint crown and the
lace curting on her head. Can any of yez tell me this--is Queen
Victory a married woman?"
"Oh, yes, but her husband is dead," answered the Story Girl.
"Well, I s'pose they couldn't have called her an old maid, seeing
she was a queen, even if she'd never got married. Sometimes I sez
to myself, 'Peg, would you like to be Queen Victory?' But I never
know what to answer. In summer, when I can roam anywhere in the
woods and the sunshine--I wouldn't be Queen Victory for anything.
But when it's winter and cold and I can't git nowheres--I feel as
if I wouldn't mind changing places with her."
Peg put her pipe back in her mouth and began to smoke fiercely.
The candle wick burned long, and was topped by a little cap of
fiery red that seemed to wink at us like an impish gnome. The
most grotesque shadow of Peg flickered over the wall behind her.
The one-eyed cat remitted his grim watch and went to sleep.
Outside the wind screamed like a ravening beast at the window.
Suddenly Peg removed her pipe from her mouth, bent forward,
gripped my wrist with her sinewy fingers until I almost cried out
with pain, and gazed straight into my face.
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