To trick people so simply, however, is not agreeable to an artist, and he told them his name was Tommy Shovel, and that his old girl walloped him, and his father found dogs, all which inventions Thrums Street accepted as true.

What is much more noteworthy is that, as he gave them birth, Tommy half believed them also, being already the best kind of actor.
Not all the talking was done by Tommy when he came home with news, for he seldom mentioned a Thrums name, of which his mother could not tell him something more.

But sometimes she did not choose to tell, as when he announced that a certain Elspeth Lindsay, of the Marywellbrae, was dead.
After this she ceased to listen, for old Elspeth had been her grandmother, and she had now no kin in Thrums.
"Tell me about the Painted Lady," Tommy said to her.

"Is it true she's a witch ?" But Mrs.Sandys had never heard of any woman so called: the Painted Lady must have gone to Thrums after her time.
"There ain't no witches now," said Elspeth tremulously; Shovel's mother had told her so.
"Not in London," replied Tommy, with contempt; and this is all that was said of the Painted Lady then.

It is the first mention of her in these pages.
The people Mrs.Sandys wanted to hear of chiefly were Aaron Latta and Jean Myles, and soon Tommy brought news of them, but at the same time he had heard of the Den, and he said first: "Oh, mother, I thought as you had told me about all the beauty places in Thrums, and you ain't never told me about the Den." His mother heaved a quick breath.