“She’s a year older than me,” she said, “and I guess I can take care of myself. Still she hasn’t much sense. She’ll get into trouble yet. She doesn’t understand how to manage the boys when they’re too fresh.”
“But you do, I suppose?” suggested Howard.
“Indeed I do,” with a quick nod of her small graceful head, “I know what I’m about. My mother taught me a few things.”
“Didn’t she teach your sister also?”
“Miss Black-Hair” dropped her eyes and flushed a little, looking like a child caught in a lie. “Of course,” she said after a pause.
“How long have you been without your mother?”
“I’ve been away from home four months. But I saw her in the street yesterday. She didn’t see me though.”
“Then you’ve got a step-father?”
“No, I haven’t. Nellie told that to Mrs. Sands. But it’s not so. You know Nellie’s not my sister?”
“I fancied not from what you said a moment ago.”