“No, I don’t mind. I don’t very often get a chance to talk to anybody. Pa never says a word, hardly,” the girl went on.
Arden, Terry, and Sim watched her sympathetically as she stood first on one foot then on the other in a nervous way, smoothing out the sand beneath her feet. They had never met a girl like her, and pitied her at once when they learned of her lonely life. But, sorry as they were, they realized that there was something about her that was different, a hint of a mind not as keenly alert as theirs. She was so slow to respond to their advances.
“Why did you run away the other night in the storm?” Terry bravely asked. “We wanted you to come in.”
“I was afraid. I just wanted to look at you all in the nice bright room, but when you saw me——”
“Melissa!” thundered a voice behind them.
They all started and turned. A shabbily dressed man was standing back of them on the sand. They had not heard his footsteps. Had he purposely crept up on Melissa?
“What are you doing there?” he asked roughly.
“Nothing, Pa—I was just swimmin’.” Melissa seemed to swerve visibly, and she looked nervously down at the bracelet Sim had given her.
“What’s that you got? Haven’t I told you not to take things?”
“I didn’t take it, Pa. She gave it to me. I never even asked.”