Birt hung his head. The folly of it!
“What ailed ye, ter hide it from me?” she asked deprecatingly, holding out her worn, hard-working hands. “Hev I ever done ye harm?”
“Nuthin’ but good.”
“Don’t everybody know a boy’s mother air bound ter take his part agin all the worl’?”
“Everybody but me,” said the penitent Birt.
“What ailed ye, ter hide it from me? What did ye ’low I’d do?”
“I ’lowed ye wouldn’t want me ter go pardners with Nate,” he said drearily.
“I reckon I wouldn’t!” she admitted.
“Ye always said he war a snake in the grass.”
“He hev proved that air a true word.”