Then Johnnie understood what had happened.
"Ha-a-a-a!" Cis threw back her head with a taunting laugh. "Dude! So he's a dude, is he? But I notice, big as you are, that you didn't let Mr. Perkins know you'd been watching us! You didn't come up to the bench and speak to him! No! You waited till he was gone! You were only brave enough to do your talking in front of a lot of girls! Ha-a-a-a!" Then her anger mounting, "You talk about sneaking! That's because you've sneaked and followed us!"
"Y're too young t' have any whipper-snapper trailin' 'round with y'—noons, 'r any other time," declared Barber.
"My mother married when she was seventeen!" retorted Cis.
"It'll be time enough for y' t' be thinkin' o' beaus when y're twenty," went on Big Tom, quietly.
She stood up. "You hate to see anybody happy, don't you?" she asked scornfully. "You're afraid maybe Mr. Perkins will like me, and want me to marry him, and give me a good home!"
"You can put that Perkins out o' y'r head," commanded the longshoreman. "When y're old enough, o' course, y're goin' t' marry; but I plan t' have y' marry a man."
"Mr. Perkins is a man," she answered, not cowed or frightened in the least.
"Not my notion o' a man," said Big Tom.
"I like him all the better for that!" she returned—an answer which stung and angered him anew, for he caught her roughly once more and hurled her back into her chair.