"Aren't you a neighbor of hers?"
He gave a brief nod of assent.
"Then," she persisted, "you surely would have heard if she were ill, wouldn't you?"
Another long pause. "Dunno as I would. We-all ain't much on talk."
"You certainly are not!" exclaimed Kate with some asperity.
It seemed to her anxious impatience that his taciturnity was deliberate, hostile. He was a rough, unkempt, savage-looking creature; yet the tenderness and skill with which he held little Kitty before him on his ungainly mount would have done credit to any woman.
Kate remarked presently, observing this, "You've had children of your own?"
"Thirteen on 'em."
"Thirteen? Splendid! All living?"
He spat again. "All daid. Died when they was babies."