`` Oh , thank you . Which section -- the five-cent one or the ten-cent one ? '' asked Cecily timidly . `` The ten-cent one , of course . The best is none too good for me . I 'll give you the ten cents another time . I 'm short of change just now -- not being as rich as Queen Victory . There 's her picture up there -- the one with the blue sash and diamint crown and the lace curting on her head . Can any of yez tell me this -- is Queen Victory a married woman ? '' `` Oh , yes , but her husband is dead , '' answered the Story Girl . `` Well , I s ` pose they could n't have called her an old maid , seeing she was a queen , even if she 'd never got married . Sometimes I sez to myself , ` Peg , would you like to be Queen Victory ? ' But I never know what to answer . In summer , when I can roam anywhere in the woods and the sunshine -- I would n't be Queen Victory for anything . But when it 's winter and cold and I ca n't git nowheres -- I feel as if I would n't mind changing places with her . '' Peg put her pipe back in her mouth and began to smoke fiercely . The candle wick burned long , and was topped by a little cap of fiery red that seemed to wink at us like an impish gnome . The most grotesque shadow of Peg flickered over the wall behind her . The one-eyed cat remitted his grim watch and went to sleep . Outside the wind screamed like a ravening beast at the window .
Suddenly Peg removed her pipe from her mouth , bent forward , gripped my wrist XXXXX her sinewy fingers until I almost cried out with pain , and gazed straight into my face .
Outside as by for in like of to up with