“Upon my WORD, I don't see how anybody can laugh, after what has happened on this place,” she said dismally, “or—WHISTLE, after—” Her lips quivered a little. She was a distressed Christmas angel, if ever there was one.
Wally snorted. “Want us to go CRYING around because the row's over?” he demanded. “Think Grant ought to wear crepe, I suppose—because he ain't on ice this morning—or in jail, which he'd hate a lot worse. Think we ought to go around with our jaws hanging down so you could step on 'em, because Baumberger cashed in? Huh! All hurts MY feelings is, I didn't get a whack at the old devil myself!” It was a long speech for Wally to make, and he made it with deliberate malice.
“Now you're shouting!” applauded Gene, also with the intent to be shocking.
“THAT'S the stuff,” approved Clark, grinning at Evadna's horrified eyes.
“Grant can run over me sharp-shod and I won't say a word, for what he did day before yesterday,” declared Jack, opening his eyes and looking straight at Evadna. “You don't see any tears rolling down MY cheeks, I hope?”
“Good Injun's the stuff, all right. He'd 'a' licked the hull damn—”
“Now, Donny, be careful what language you use,” Phoebe admonished, and so cut short his high-pitched song of praise.
“I don't care—I think it's perfectly awful.” Evadna looked distastefully upon her breakfast. “I just can't sleep in that room, Aunt Phoebe. I tried not to think about it, but it opens right that way.”
“Huh!” snorted Wally. “Board up the window, then, so you can't see the fatal spot!” His gray eyes twinkled. “I could DANCE on it myself,” he said, just to horrify her—which he did. Evadna shivered, pressed her wisp of handkerchief against her lips, and left the table hurriedly.
“You boys ought to be ashamed of yourselves!” Phoebe scolded half-heartedly; for she had lived long in the wild, and had seen much that was raw and primitive. “You must take into consideration that Vadnie isn't used to such things. Why, great grief! I don't suppose the child ever SAW a dead man before in her life—unless he was laid out in church with flower-anchors piled knee-deep all over him. And to see one shot right before her very eyes—and by the man she expects—or did expect to marry—why, you can't wonder at her looking at it the way she does. It isn't Vadnie's fault. It's the way she's been raised.”