"One more complaint against either of you," cautioned the judge
impressively, "and it will be the house of reform. If your families can't
make you behave, the State can. But we don't want to leave it to the
family or the State; we want to leave it to you. I believe you can both
make good, but you'll have to fight for it."
Nance's irregular features broke into a smile. It was a quick, wide smile
and very intimate.
"Fight?" she repeated, with a quizzical look at the judge. "I thought
that was what we was pinched fer."
CHAPTER V
ON PROBATION
For a brief period Nance Molloy walked the paths of righteousness. The
fear of being "took up" proved a salutary influence, but permanent
converts are seldom made through fear of punishment alone. She was trying
by imitation and suggestion to grope her way upward, but the light she
climbed by was a borrowed light which swung far above her head and threw
strange, misleading shadows across her path. The law that allowed a man
to sell her fire-crackers and then punished her for firing them off, that
allowed any passer-by to kick her stone off the hop-scotch square and
punished her for hurling; the stone after him, was a baffling and
difficult thing to understand.
At school it was no better. The truant officer said she must go every
day, yet when she got there, there was no room for her. She had to sit in
the seat with two other little girls who bitterly resented the intrusion.
"You oughtn't to be in this grade anyhow!" declared one of them.
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