While both were intent on the amusement, Mrs. Ripley came to the door and stood wonderingly looking at them.
"It does seem as if Indians are human beings like the rest of us," was her thought; "but who could resist her gentle ways?"
Up went the single stone in the air, and Omas grabbed the batch that were lying on the ground, and then caught the first as it came down.
"That won't do!" called Alice, seizing the brawny hand, which—sad to say—had been stained with blood as innocent as hers; "you didn't do that fair!"
"What de matter?" he asked, looking reproachfully into the round face almost against his own.
"I'll show you how. Now, I lay those three on the ground like that. Then I toss up this, pick up one without touching any of the others, keep it in my hand and pick up the next—see?"
She illustrated her instruction by her work, while her pupil listened and stared.
"I know—I know," he said quickly. "I show you." Then the wag of a Delaware tossed the first stone fully twenty feet aloft, caught up the others, and took that on the fly.
"I never saw anybody as dumb as you," was the comment. "What is the use of your trying? You couldn't learn to play Jack Stones in ever so long."
She was about to try him again, when, childlike, she darted off upon a widely different subject, for it had just come into her little head.