At that there arose new exclamations of wonder, as well as of disbelief.
"Oh, come off, now," remarked Red, quite forgetting in his amazement the respect supposed to be shown for an acting scout master, even though in the private walks of life he might only be a fellow playmate; "you can't expect us to swallow that, now, Elmer."
"Do you mean about the woman's height, or her age?" asked the other, calmly.
"Why—er—both I guess," faltered Red, weakening as he saw the positive front of the other.
"Stop and think, did you ever see any other than a short, squatty woman among the Italian laborers? And I reckon nobody else ever did. They carry heavy burdens on their heads, and people say that's one reason they're always dumpy," Elmer began.
"He's right, fellows," broke out Landy; "why, I've seen a dago woman carrying a mattress, a stove and some chairs on her head all at the same time. Gee, looked like a two-legged moving van:"
"But see here, you notice a shelf with a few things on it, some hairpins among the lot. It was built unusually low, so she could reach it. And what's this you see here, fellows? A piece of broken looking glass fastened to the wall. Notice how low down it is? No man ever used that glass, you can depend on it; and the woman who did was surely small, wasn't she now?"
"A regular sawed-off," assented Lil Artha, emphatically.
"Elmer's sure proved his point there, fellows," declared Red Huggins, grinning.
"But what makes you think the woman is old, Elmer?" asked Landy, curiously.