Opportunities Part 13

"Do you like it?"

"I like to go. I don't like the place, Norton, for the place is very disagreeable."

"So I should think. But I might like to go too, you know. I'm going to try."

Matilda stood still and looked very dubious.

"I'm going," Norton repeated, laughing. "You want me to go, don't you?"

"Why, I would like it very much, if you would not"----

"What? No, I will not," said Norton, shaking his head.

"But, Norton, I am going into Mr. Forshew's, first."

"Well; I can go into Mr. Forshew's too. I've been _there_ before."

"I am going to buy a tea-kettle."

"I shall not interfere with that," said Norton.

"But I am going to get a tea-kettle and take it along with me--to Lilac Lane."

"What for? They'll send it if you want it."

"I want it immediately, and Mr. Forshew's boy is never there when he is wanted, you know."

"_You_ want the tea-kettle immediately. You are not going to make tea immediately, are you?"

"Exactly that, Norton. That is one of the things I am going to do. And the poor old woman I am going to see has no tea-kettle."

"Then I don't believe she has tea."

"Oh yes, but I know she has tea, Norton."

"And bread and b.u.t.ter?"

"Yes, and bread and b.u.t.ter too," said Matilda, nodding her little head positively. Norton looked at her with a perfectly grave face.

"It must be a very odd house," said he, "I don't see how you can be so sure of things."

Matilda began to walk on towards the corner.

"Who took her tea and bread and b.u.t.ter?" said Norton. "I suppose you know, if you know the rest."

"Of course, somebody must have done it," said Matilda, hesitating.

"I wonder if there was a Pink anywhere among the things," said Norton.

"Did you see anything of it?"

Matilda could not help laughing, and they both laughed; and so they went into Mr. Forshew's shop. It was a little, low shop, just on the corner; but, to be sure, there was a great variety, and a good collection of things there. All sorts of iron things, and a great many sorts of tin things; with iron dust, and street dust, plentifully overlying the shop and everything in it. Stoves were there in variety; chains, and brooms, and coal-skuttles; coffee-mills, and axes, and lamps; tin pails, and earthen batter jars; screws, and nails, and hinges, and locks; and a telegraph operator was at work in a corner.

Several customers were there too; Matilda had to wait.

"It is odd now," said Norton. "I suppose, if I wanted to spend money here, I should buy everything else in the world _but_ a tea-kettle.

That's what it is to be a girl."

"Nonsense!" said Matilda, and the set of her head was inimitable.

Norton laughed.

"That's what it is to be a Pink," he said. "I forgot. I don't believe there is another girl in town wants a tea-kettle but you. What else do you want, Pink?"

"A great deal," said Matilda; "but I can't get all I want."

"You don't want an axe, for instance; nor a coffee-mill; nor a tin pail, nor an iron chain, nor a dipper; nor screws, nor tacks; nor a lamp, do you? nor a box of matches"----

"Oh yes, Norton! Oh yes, that is just what I do want; a box of matches.

I never should have thought of it."

"How about stoves, Pink? Here are plenty."

"She has a stove. Don't be ridiculous, Norton."

And Mr. Forshew being just then at leisure, Matilda purchased a little tin tea-kettle, and came out with it in triumph.

"Now is that all?" said Norton. "How about the bread and b.u.t.ter?

Perhaps it has given out."

"No, I think not. I guess there is enough. Perhaps we had better take another loaf of bread, though. We shall pa.s.s the baker's on our way."

"Have you got money enough for every thing you want, Pink? does your aunt give you whatever you ask for?"

"Oh, I never ask her for anything," said Matilda.

"Take it without asking?"

"I do not ask, and she does not give me, Norton. But once she did, when she first came; she gave me, each of us, twenty-five dollars. I have got that, all that is left of it."

"How much is left of it?"

"Why, I don't know exactly. I spent four dollars for something else; then eighty-five cents yesterday; and a dollar just, to-day. That makes"----

"Five eighty-five," said Norton. "And that out of twenty-five, leaves nineteen fifteen."

"I've got that, then," said Matilda.

"And no hope of more? That won't do, Pink. Nineteen dollars won't last for ever at this rate. Here's the baker's."

The bread Norton paid for and carried off, and the two stepped along briskly to Lilac Lane.