e boy a little wistfully. She knew her brother was
disliked by most in the village, and it pained her terribly that it
should be so. They tried to be outwardly kind to him, but she always
felt that it was solely for her sake and never for his. As Elia had
never spoken of it before, she had lived in the hope that he did not
understand their dislike. However, it was as well that he should
know. If he realized it now, as he grew older he might endeavor to
earn their good-will in spite of present prejudice.

"Guess it must be, sis. You see I don't kind of mean to say things,"
he said almost regretfully. "Only when they're in my head they must
come out, or--or I think my head would jest bust," he finished up
naively.

The girl was still smiling, and one arm stole round the boy's hunched
shoulders.

"Of course you can't help saying those things you know to be
true----"

"But they most generally ain't true."

The innocent, inquiring eyes looked straight up into hers.

"No," he went on positively, "they generally ain't. I don't think my
head would bust keepin' in the truth. Now, yesterday, Will Henderson
was down at the saloon before he came up to see you. He came and sort
of spoke nice to me. I know he hates me, and--and I hate him worse'n
poison. Well, he spoke nice to me, as I said, an' I wanted to spit at
him for it. And I jest set to and tho't and tho't how I could hurt
him. And so I said, right out before all the boys, 'Wot for do you
allus come hangin' around our shack? Eve's most sick to death with
you,' I said; 'it isn't as if she ast you to get around, it's just you
buttin' in. If you was Jim Thorpe now----'"

"You never said all that, Elia," cried Eve, sternly. All her woman's
pride was outraged, and she felt her fingers itching to box the boy's
ears.

"I did sure," Elia went on, in that sober tone of decided
self-satisfaction. "And I said a heap more. And didn't the boys jest
laff. Will went red as a beet, and the boys laffed more. And I was
real glad. I hate Will! Say, he was up here last night. Wot for? He
was up here from six to nigh nine. Say, sis, I wish you wouldn't have
him around."

Eve did not respond. She was staring out at the rampart of hills
beyond, where Will worked. She was thinking of Will, thinking of--but
the boy was insistent.

"Say, I'd have been real glad if it had been Jim Thorpe. Only he don't
come so often, does he? I like him. Say, Jim's allus good to me. I
don't never seem to