Sentence The Fivehundredandseventieth

  

It's strange how fate can turn on a sixpence: Jessie decided not to confide in Bill – he was really just another Man and she was heartily sick of Men; they used and abused a girl with no thought for her feelings, why, they didn't even think she had feelings! but she did and she wasn't as stupid as they thought; if she could rid herself of Hamish she would get all his money and she would have his house to herself, no longer having to rely on an Man; now that was the making of an idea, and the quicker she put it into operation the better and Sadie would give the best advice; but when she opened the door, she found a small boy kneeling, obviously having been keeking or harkening at the keyhole – he jumped up with a start, but before he could run away, Jessie seized him by the collar and pulled him into the house: "lemmego!" cried the boy, "wha ur ye?" demanded Jessie, and after a struggle the boy quieted and said: "am Tam, ma pals ca me Snooker," and Jessie stared into his clear eyes: "an whit dae ye mean keekin at ma lock, Snooker Tam?" the boy blushed: "ah wisnae keekin at ye
Missus, Honest Injun, aw wiz jist re-con-loiterin," he scowled, Jessie smiled: "an jist exackly whit wis ye re-con-loiterin, tell us?" she said, rather facetiously, but with a gleam in her eye as she led the boy into the kitchen and poured him a glass of lemonade, which he gulped greedily, "kin ah hae anuvva fer ma bruvva?" he grinned, and Jessie looked round him, "ah cannae see emdy else here, whaur's yer bruvva, Tam?" and Tam grinned again: "behind ye, Missus, keekin in the windae!" and sure enough when Jessie looked over her shoulder she saw another urchin staring back, with his hands round his face to block out the sunlight; he saw them and waved, so Jessie opened the back
door and let him into the kitchen; "ye wee rascals are like a cloudburst, nary a ane in sicht when oot o a clear blue sky a big muckle black ane biles up an sterts rainin boys! ah spoze ye'll want a drink o lemonade tae?" she asked and the wee boy nodded vigorously; he had red hair and a freckled face, said his name was Boabbie and that he was indeed Tam's wee brother, though less than a year separated them and they spoke quickly in answer to her questions, one finishing each sentence the other started and their tale unfolded: they told her about the mysterious Intruder, how Tam spotted his face in a newspaper, the involvement of the Gorbals Peelers, and spotting him in the crowd at Firhill then following him – a veritable periegesis unfolding as they traversed Maryhill until they arrived, via a stop at The Clansman, at this very house; they told of their Da's enquiries and his identifying the man as Mr MacDonald and deciding that it was just a coincidence - "efter a, boys, there's only so many variations you kin get wi twa legs, twa airums, rwa ears a mooth an eyes and a great big lah-di-dah-di-dah-di-dum," which Tam explained meant 'nose' and Jessie laughed at the thought that it might mean something else, but she was intrigued and all the more so since hearing Hamish speaking, in
what sounded like German, in his sleep; now, she never read the papers, never listened to the news on the wireless, indeed had little interest in anything outside her own small world and the romantic novels she borrowed from Boots Lending Library and devoured with a passion, but when Tam pulled the crumpled newspaper – not the original, for that had been left with Inspector Ferguson, but another he had found in the midden behind his tenement – Jessie stared in amazement: "he's no got Hamish's moustache, an his hair's different but oan a derk nicht Ah mun cood mistake him fer ma husband," she admitted, "mind, he comports hisself jist exackly as he aye did, happen mebbe wi a bit mair enthusiasm at times, certainly he's got mair stanima noo, that's sumpn's bin diminishin ower the last sex or seeven mumfs, so aye, ah kin see whaur yer cummin frae, Tam an Boabbie, aye, well ye'll hae tae gie me time tae think aboot this," and she put her hand on her bosom, which both boys had been staring at for some time, "it's a awfy lot fer a wee wummin aw alane in this wicked wurld tae tak in!" and as one, the two lads jumped up an cried: "we'll save ye, Missus, ye kin rely oan us!"