"Poor little lad. Oi'm sorry yez got hurted."
And the kind-hearted man patted the child on the head. He liked Wathemah. But the little visitor was intent on the two little girls and their gay paper dolls.
Esther now expressed a wish to hear some of her host's stories of pioneer life in Arizona.
Patrick drew himself up. He felt his self-respect rising.
"Them wuz awful toimes," he said, puffing away at his pipe again; "but Oi wuz young an' sthrong. The Apaches wuz on the warpath most av the toime, an' we fellers didn't know but we'd be kilt ony minute. We slipt wid wan oi open, an' our guns by our soides."
"It must have been very exciting," said Esther, with marked interest.
"It certain wuz exciting. It wuz bad, too, ter come back ter y'r shack an' foind y'r rations gone, or no shack at all."
"What would you do then?" she asked.
"Oh, we wint hungry till we caught fish, or shot deer."
Here he lighted his pipe again, and drew long whiffs.