" His
hearers gasped and looked at him wide-eyed. "If she has a husband, he
don't know he's the father of this here baby. Don't you see that a woman
couldn't 'a' carried a heavy baskit any great distance? She couldn't 'a'
packed it from Boggs City er New York er Baltimore, could she? She
wouldn't 'a' been strong enough. No, siree; she didn't have far to come,
folks. An' she was a woman, 'cause ain't all typewritin' done by women?
You don't hear of men typewriters, do you? People wouldn't have 'em.
Now, the thing fer me to do first is to make a house-to-house search to
see if I c'n locate a typewritin' machine anywheres. Get out of the way,
Toby. Doggone you boys, anyhow, cain't you see I want ter get started on
this job?"
"Say, Anderson," said Harry Squires, the reporter, "I'd like to ask if
there is any one in Tinkletown, male or female, who can afford to pay
you a thousand dollars a year for taking care of that kid?"
"What's that?" slowly oozed from Anderson's lips.
"You heard what I said. Say, don't you know you can bring up a kid in
this town for eleven or twelve dollars a year?"
"You don't know what you're talkin' about," burst from Anderson's
indignant lips, but he found instant excuse to retire from the circle of
speculators. A few minutes later he and his wife were surreptitiously
re-reading the note, both filled with the fear that it said $10.
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