Tod would have been dead half a dozen times if it hadn't been for her and Doctor John, and there ain't nobody knows it better'n me.

It's just like her to let Archie come here so much with Tod; she knows I ain't goin' to let nothin' happen to him.

And as for mothers, Sam Fogarty," here Mrs.Fogarty lifted her free hand and shook her finger in a positive way--"when Archie gits short of mothers he's got one right here, don't make no difference what you or anybody else says," and she tapped her broad bosom meaningly.
Contrary, however, to Fogarty's hopes and surmises, Archie had forgotten neither Sandy's insult nor Scootsy's epithet.

"He's a pick-up" and "he ain't got no mammy" kept ringing in his ears as he walked back up the beach to his home.

He remembered having heard the words once before when he was some years younger, but then it had come from a passing neighbor and was not intended for him.