"Yes, I heard her voice," returned the boy indifferently.
"She was tellin' about her John."
"How is he getting along?"
"He's in a bad way. Oh, he's real well physicianally, but he's in a bad way in his mind."
"Well, you don't wonder, do you?"
"Oh, no, 'course not. Still, well, for one thing, he don't like to see folks."
"Strange! Now, I'd think he'd just dote on seeing folks, wouldn't you?"
Susan caught the full force of the sarcasm, but superbly she ignored it.
"Well, I don't know—maybe; but, anyhow, he don't, an' Mis' McGuire's that worried she don't know what to do. You see, she found him once with his daddy's pistol"—Susan was talking very fast now—"an' 'course that worked her up somethin' terrible. I'm afraid he hain't got much backbone. They don't dare to leave him alone a minute—not a minute. An' Mis' McGuire, she was wonderin' if—if you couldn't help 'em out some way."
"I?" The short ejaculation was full of amazement.