`` Never struck anything yet I could n't do if I put my mind to it , '' she declared . Mary seldom lost a chance of tooting her own horn . She taught them how to make `` blow-bags '' out of the thick leaves of the `` live-forever '' that flourished in the old Bailey garden , she initiated them into the toothsome qualities of the `` sours '' that grew in the niches of the graveyard dyke , and she could make the most wonderful shadow pictures on the walls with her long , flexible fingers . And when they all went picking gum in Rainbow Valley Mary always got `` the biggest chew '' and bragged about it . There were times when they hated her and times when they loved her . But at all times they found her interesting . So they submitted quite meekly to her bossing , and by the end of a fortnight had come to feel that she must always have been with them . `` It 's the queerest thing that Mrs. Wiley hai n't been after me , '' said Mary . `` I ca n't understand it . '' `` Maybe she is n't going to bother about you at all , '' said Una . `` Then you can just go on staying here . '' `` This house ai n't hardly big enough for me and old Martha , '' said Mary darkly . `` It 's a very fine thing to have enough to eat -- I 've often wondered what it would be like -- but I 'm p ` ticler about my cooking . And Mrs. Wiley 'll be here yet . SHE 'S got a rod in pickle for me all right . I do n't think about it so much in daytime but say , girls , up there in that garret at night I git to thinking and thinking of it , till I just almost wish she 'd come and have it over with . I dunno 's one real good whipping would be much worse 'n all the dozen I 've lived through in my mind ever since I run away . Were any of you ever licked ? '' `` No , of course not , '' said Faith indignantly . `` Father would never do such a thing . ''
`` You do n't know you 're alive , '' said Mary with a sigh half of envy , half XXXXX superiority .
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