the sign of life they
gave, the three might have been mere effigies of women. They heard a
faint scream when she caught sight of them sitting there, and their
faces settled into more stolid indifference, adding a hint of antagonism
even to the soft eyes of Lucy, the tender, childless one.

"Vadnie, here are some new neighbors I want you to get acquainted with."
Phoebe's eyes besought the girl to be calm. "They're all old friends of
mine. Come here and let me introduce you--and don't look so horrified,
honey!"

Those incorrigibles, her cousins, would have whooped with joy at her
unmistakable terror when she held out a trembling hand and gasped
faintly: "H-how do you--do?"

"This Hagar," Phoebe announced cheerfully; and the old squaw caught the
girl's hand and gripped it tightly for a moment in malicious enjoyment
of her too evident fear and repulsion.

"This Viney."

Viney, reading Evadna's face in one keen, upward glance, kept her hands
hidden in the folds of her blanket, and only nodded twice reassuringly.

"This Lucy."

Lucy read also the girl's face; but she reached up, pressed her hand
gently, and her glance was soft and friendly. So the ordeal was over.

"Bring some of that cake you baked to-day, honey--and do brace up!"
Phoebe patted her upon the shoulder.

Hagar forestalled the hospitable intent by getting slowly upon her fat
legs, shaking her hair out of her eyes, and grunting a command to the
others. With visible reluctance Lucy and Viney rose also, hitched their
blankets into place, and vanished, soft-footed as they had come.

"Oo-oo!" Evadna stared at the place where they were not. "Wild
Indians--I thought the boys were just teasing when they said so--and
it's really true, Aunt Phoebe?"

"They're no wilder than you are," Phoebe retorted impatiently.

"Oh, they ARE wild. They're exactly like in my history--and they don't
make a sound when they go--you just look, and they're gone! That old fat
one--did you see how she looked at me? As if she wanted to--SCALP me,
Aunt Phoebe! She looked right at my hair and--"

"Well, she didn't take it with her, did she? Don't be silly. I've known
old Hagar ever since Wally was a baby. She took him right to her own
wikiup and nursed him with her own papoose for two months when I was
sick, and Viney stayed with me day and night and pulled me through. Lucy
I've known since she was a papoose. Great grief, child! Didn't you hear
me say they're old friends? I wanted