“Don’t you go to school?”
“Did till to-day. Then they fired me.”
“Expelled you! What for?”
Joshua began the story of Madmallet’s tyranny and his own disgrace, and the Oriental-topaz eyes glowed warmly as she listened to every word. It was thrilling to have her watching him so, and Joshua may be excused if he made himself appear something of a bold, bad outlaw.
“Would you ’a’ smashed him?” she wanted to know.
“You bet yer neck I would,” said Joshua. “Can’t come nothin’ like that on me. I wonder if I—if I—now— Could I get a job, d’ye s’pose, and go West with your father’s gypo thing? Me and Les?”
“Is Les your brother’s name?”
“Lester. Us kids call ’im Les. My name’s Joshua. I don’t like that name, do you? Nobody wants an ole Bible name like that, do they?”
“Uh-uh—I don’t mind it,” she told him.
Then a silence fell between them. It grew more tense as time went on, with the eyes of both abased. Then said she of the bronze-gold hair: