"It wouldn't seem so lonely," said Ruth, sitting up, "but you don't like any one to sleep with you, Aunt Hester."
"I'd like it to-night." So Ruth found her comfort in the clasp of Miss Hester's arm and went to sleep cuddled close.
Billy had listened with kindling eyes and with angry exclamations, to Ruth's account of the disaster, and the next day, on their way to the store, he confided to Ruth that he meant to "do up" that Nora Petty. Just what the process of doing up might mean, Ruth didn't know, but she believed in Billy's prowess and was sure it was something too dreadful for any girl to endure. If it had been a boy, now, who had done this thing, she would willingly have allowed Billy to punish him as he might see fit, but a girl battered and banged by Billy's tough little fists was something altogether too awful to be thought of, so she tried to make him promise that he would let Nora alone, saying, rather grandly, that boys ought not to fight girls.
"Ah, look a-here, I didn't mean to knock her down and pommel her," said Billy, "but I'll tell all the fellows how mean she is and if Frank Crane gives her any more apples, I'm mistaken. They won't, any of the other fellows, you can bet your boots. I guess we can find a way to give her a dose without our fists."
"Well, it won't do any good now," returned Ruth, resignedly. "Billy, I wonder who has that other doll that was Aunt Hester's."
"You can search me," replied Billy.
"Just think of it, she's the only one in the world like my Henrietta, and I do wish I could have her. Do you suppose the person loves her very much, as much as I would?"
"Ask me somethin' easy. Maybe there are some others somewhere like that one." Billy was thoughtful.
"Where? You know Aunt Hester said they didn't make that kind nowadays."
"Oh, I don't know just where. There might be some left over."