The harassed marshal experienced some
difficulty in forcing the mothers to take back their children.
In each instance he was reviled by the estimable ladies, all of whom
accused him of being utterly heartless. Mrs. Crow came to his rescue and
told the disappointed mothers that the scalding water was ready for
application if they did not take their baskets of babies away on short
order. It may be well for the reputation of Tinkletown to mention that
one of the donors was Mrs. Raspus, a negro washerwoman who did work for
the "dagoes" engaged in building the railroad hard by; another was the
wife of Antonio Galli, a member of the grading gang, and the third was
Mrs. Pool, the widow of a fisherman who had recently drowned himself in
drink.
It is quite possible that Anderson might have had the three infants on
his hands permanently had not the mothers been so eager to know their
fate. They appeared in person early the next morning to see if the
babies had frozen to death on the doorstep. Mrs. Pool even went so far
as to fetch some extra baby clothes which she had neglected to drop with
her male. Mrs. Raspus came for her basket, claiming it was the only one
she had in which to "tote" the washing for the men.
After these annoying but enlivening incidents Anderson was permitted to
recover from his daze and to throw off symptoms of nervous prostration.
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