He struggled to escape but the hold of his sister was vise-like.
“Will you leave nests alone?” she demanded.
“Ah, who wants to steal eggs? I just brought you one ’cause I thought you’d like it.”
“Well, I don’t. So let the eggs where they belong,” she said as she relaxed her clasp and he rose.
“Now look at us,” he began, then the funny spectacle of wet clothes sent each laughing.
“Gee,” he said, “won’t we get Sam Hill from Mom?”
“What’s Sam Hill?” she asked. “And where do you learn such awful slang? Abody can hardly understand you half the time. Mom says you should stop it.”
“Yea, that reminds me, Manda, what I come for. Mom said you’re to come in and get your dresses tried on. And mebbe you’d like to know that Aunt Rebecca’s here again. She just come and is helpin’ to sew and if she sees our clothes wet--oh, yea!”
“Oh yea,” echoed Amanda with the innocent candor of a twelve-year-old. “Aunt Rebecca--is she here again? Ach, if she wasn’t so cranky I’d be glad still when she comes, but you know how she acts all the time.”
“Um-uh. Uncle Amos says still she’s prickly like a chestnut burr. Jiminy crickets, she’s worse’n any burr I ever seen!”