"Quite accidentally," Miss Helen told him. "She is a very lovely girl, quite alone in the world, and we feel ourselves very fortunate in having secured her services. I am thinking of asking her to go back with us when we return, for even if it should seem best to send the girls to school, I am sure I could find a good position for her in the family of some one of my friends. She is very pretty, don't you think?"
"Rather an unusual type, and yes, she is pretty. I should not call her beautiful but singularly attractive." He looked earnestly at the señorita who was now watching Jean and Jack performing some gymnastic feats to the possible peril of limbs and frocks. "If I had had a granddaughter," Mr. Pinckney went on musingly, "she might have looked something like that."
Just here Jean's attempt to poise herself on one foot like a flying Mercury ended in a fall from the veranda's railing which fortunately brought about no worse hurt than a bumped forehead, but for the moment she was the centre of attraction, and after Mr. Pinckney had taken his leave, Jack, finding herself deprived of Jean's society, because her twin preferred to stay and be coddled, went off to discover some new entertainment. Mary Lee still industriously pulled threads, Nan devoted herself to picking out chords on Miss Dolores's guitar, and sang in an undertone a little Spanish melody her teacher had taught her. It went rather haltily because of the groping for an accompaniment, but Nan enjoyed it.
Jack's eye roved over the immediate neighborhood, and caught sight of Li Hung's blue jacket down in the vegetable garden. She would go and see what he was doing.
Li Hung was close to the hedge, his head bent over his basket. As Jack approached he looked up, attempted to rise and failed; his long queue was in some mysterious way, attached to the hedge. Jack at once took in the situation and at the same moment she heard a suppressed giggle. Without attempting to rescue Li Hung from his uncomfortable position she flew out upon the sidewalk, bent upon vengeance, for she had espied a small boy crouching outside. Before he had time to flee or to recover from his surprise at her sudden appearance, she pounced upon him, tumbled him over, sat upon his prostrate form and began to pommel him with her fists. Li Hung finding that he could not extricate himself, went on placidly picking tomatoes till Jack should return to set him free. "Me waitee, you come plitty soon," he called out in his high-pitched voice as Jack continued her pommeling.
The boy was squirming under her fists and was making powerless efforts to rise when an automobile whizzed around the corner. At the sound of the "Honk! honk!" the boy lifted up his head and shouted "Help! help!" The single occupant of the automobile stopped his car and sprang out to observe the singular spectacle of a nice looking little girl, sitting on a boy's prostrate form which she violently pounded with her fists.
"Here, here," cried the young man, "what's all this? See here, boy, how do you happen to let a girl do you up this way?"
"He is a bad boy," said Jack tossing back her refractory locks. "He tied poor Li Hung's queue to the hedge so he can't get away. Won't you please sit on the boy and hold him down till I come back? I want to untie Li Hung, and I'm not through with the boy yet; he won't say he is sorry."
"Don't you think he has had enough?" asked the young man. "How long have you been at it?"
"Oh, not very long," said Jack looking down at her victim and pounding more gently.