“It’s about ten o’clock,” said Azalea. “By noon we’ll be hungry again, and by four o’clock we’ll be starved to death. Pa and ma will come along and find two heaps of bones at the Old Green Place, and they’ll never know it’s us, and they’ll go up the mountain weeping and gnashing their teeth.”
Jim looked at her admiringly.
“I don’t see how you think of so many things to say, Zalie. I can’t think of things to say.”
“Then take me along with you wherever you go, Jimmy.”
“All right,” said he.
At last they got in sight of the Atherton estate. Jim saw it first.
“Look there! Look there!” he cried. “Did you ever see such hedges?”
They ran through the trees, then along beside the great hedge as far as the gateway.
“Why, the gates are open, ain’t they, Jim?”
“Say, they are! Now what do you think of that? Zalie, there’s smoke coming out of the kitchen chimney—and the grass is cut. And, look there, a man is painting the house.”