"
She took a large pair of shears from the table-drawer as she spoke,
and, grasping the shining, curls in her left hand, rapidly snipped
them from the head, leaving it rough, tangled, and hardly to be
recognized.
'Toinette no longer resisted, or even cried. The blow of that rough
hand seemed to have stunned or stupefied her, and she stood
perfectly quiet, her face pale, her eyes fixed, and her trembling
lips a little apart; while the old woman, after laying the handful
of curls carefully aside, dragged on the clothes she had selected,
in place of those she was stealing, and finished by trying the plaid
shawl around the child's shoulders, fastening it in a great knot
behind, and placing a dirty old hood upon the shorn head.
"There, now, you'll do, I guess; and we'll go take you home: only
mind you don't speak a word to man, woman, nor child, as we go; for,
if you do, I'll fetch you right back here, and shut you up with Old
Bogy in that closet."
So saying, she bundled up 'Toinette's own clothes, slipped the
bracelet into her pocket, then, with the parcel in one hand, grasped
the child's arm with the other, and led her out into the street.
"Will you really take me home?" asked 'Toinette piteously, as they
climbed the broken steps leading from the cellar to the pavement.
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