Olive Personette looked very sympathetic. Presently she said, "How many little girls do you know?"
"Only three, and they are Spanish. There were none where we lived before. It was a kind of wild place. I like this ever so much better."
"Did you love them?"
Laverne considered, while her eyes wandered off into space.
"I think I didn't really love them. I liked them. They came up to learn English, and Miss Holmes and I studied Spanish. And we played about. They had a queer old house and a lovely garden, with fruit and flowers, and tame birds, and everything. And I had a squirrel I tamed. We brought him up here, and I kept him two weeks in a little pen, but when I let him out he ran away."
"I'll tell you what I'll do. We'll make believe to ourselves that we are cousins. Mother said she hoped I would like you a good deal. You see, Isabel begins to go with big girls, and they just push you out when they tell secrets, and they have so many to tell. Do you know any secrets?"
Laverne shook her head gravely.
"But sometimes you do bad things and you don't want to tell anybody."
"Why, I tell Uncle Jason everything. And——"
Did she ever do anything very bad? She didn't always study when Miss Holmes told her to, and she sometimes tore her frocks scrambling up or down the hills. She had been brought up to be truthful and obedient, and now these traits were part of her nature.