“Ah-ha!” cried Mercy Curtis, chuckling to herself. “I know. She thought Yankee Land was just flowing in milk and honey. Listen! here’s what she said to herself before she ran away from home:
“I wish I’d lived away Down East,
Where codfish salt the sea,
And where the folks have apple sass
And punkin pie fer tea!”
“That’s the ‘Western Girl's Lament,’” pursued Mercy. “So you found ’way down East nothing like what you thought it was?”
The castaway scowled at the sharp-tongued lame girl for a moment. Then she nodded. “It’s the folks,” she said. “You’re all so afraid of a stranger. Do I look like I’d bite?”
“Maybe not ordinarily,” said Helen, laughing softly. “But you do not look very pleasant just now.”
“Well, people haven’t been nice to me,” grumbled the Western girl. “I thought there were lots of rich men in the East, and that a girl could make friends ’most anywhere, and get into nice families––”
“To work?” asked Ruth, curiously.