I help moth ...

Mrs.Beamish in the house." But as if, with this, she had said too much, she grew tongue-tied again; and there was nothing more to be made of her.

Taking pity on her timidity, Mahony tried to put her at ease by talking about himself.

He described his life on the diggings and the straits to which he was at times reduced: the buttons affixed to his clothing by means of gingerbeer-bottle wire; his periodic onslaughts on sock-darning; the celebrated pudding it had taken him over four hours to make.

And Polly, listening to him, forgot her desire to run away.