“But look here,” he asked. “Why didn’t you go with Ruth and ’Lasses?”
“Humph! They didn’t want me,” sniffed Helen.
“Now, Helen, you know better. Ruth never slighted you in the world. I know her better than that.”
“Well, she makes too much of Chess Copley. She is always praising him up to me. And I don’t like it. I’ll treat him just as I want to—so there!”
Tom looked rather sober at this. He hesitated a moment. He wanted to ask his pettish sister a question, but evidently did not know how to go about it.
“It can’t be helped now, I suppose. They will be back after a while. Where were they going besides to that crazy fellow’s island?”
“Just there. That’s all.”
“Come on and watch me eat. I’m starved.”
“Thanks! I watched the pythons fed at the zoo once,” said Helen with unwonted sharpness. “I will sit here till the scene of savagery is over. You can come back.”
“You are in a fine mood, I see,” observed Tom, and went off chuckling.