ther Hart. It's got so I can't ride
past this old hag in the trail but she gives me the bad eye, and mumbles
into her blanket. And if I look sidewise, she yowls all over the country
that I'm drunk. I'm getting tired of it!" He shook the squaw as a puppy
shakes a shoe--shook her till her hair quite hid her ugly old face from
sight.

"All right--Mother Hart she tellum mebbyso let you go. This time I no
throw you in pond. You heap take care next time, mebbyso. You no tellum
big lie, me all time heap drunk. You kay bueno. All time me tellum
Mother Hart, tellum boys, tellum Viney, Lucy, tellum Charlie and Tom and
Sleeping Turtle you heap big liar. Me tell Wally shont-isham. Him all
time my friend--mebbyso him no likum you no more.

"Huh. Get out--pikeway before I forget you're a lady!"

He laughed ironically, and pushed her from him so suddenly that she
sprawled upon the steps. The Indians grinned unsympathetically at her,
for Hagar was not the most popular member of the tribe by any means.
Scrambling up, she shook her witch locks from her face, wrapped herself
in her dingy blanket, and scuttled away, muttering maledictions under
her breath. The watching group turned and followed her, and in a few
seconds the gate was heard to slam shut behind them. Grant stood where
he was, leaning against the milk-house wall; and when they were gone, he
gave a short, apologetic laugh.

"No need to lecture, Mother Hart. I know it was a fool thing to do; but
when Donny told me what the old devil said, I was so mad for a minute--"

Phoebe caught him again by the arm and pulled him forward. "Grant!
You're squeezing Vadnie to death, just about! Great grief, I forgot all
about the poor child being here! You poor little--"

"Squeezing who?" Grant whirled, and caught a brief glimpse of a crumpled
little figure behind him, evidently too scared to cry, and yet not quite
at the fainting point of terror. He backed, and began to stammer an
apology; but she did not wait to hear a word of it. For an instant
she stared into his face, and then, like a rabbit released from its
paralysis of dread, she darted past him and deaf up the stone steps into
the house. He heard the kitchen-door shut, and the click of the lock.
He heard other doors slam suggestively; and he laughed in spite of his
astonishment.

"And who the deuce might that be?" he asked, feeling in his pocket for
smoking material.

Phoebe seemed undecided between tears and laughter. "Oh, Gr