But Mamie Little didn't plump down on her knees in front of me. She stuck her chin in the air and said:
“No; thank you.”
I guess I got hotter than I ever was in my life. I was burning hot. And I guess I was pretty mad. I got up and held the pillow by one corner.
“All right for you, then!” I said; and all I thought of was to make her sorry for making me look silly before the whole crowd. “All right for you! I know who dynamited your house, and now I won't tell!”
Well, right away she got down on her knees. She took the pillow from me and got down on her knees on it. So I kneeled down on it, too, and she let me kiss her on the cheek. It was the softest cheek I ever kissed, I guess. So then she got up, and took the pillow and looked around the circle for a boy to drop it in front of, and when she didn't drop it in front of Toady Williams the very first thing, I felt fine. Swatty leaned over to me and said:
“Garsh! Now you done it!”
“Well,” I said back, “I got a right to tell if I want to, haven't I?”
“No, you hain't,” Swatty said. “If you tell then Slim Finnegan will stab the whole three of us.”
“Well, let him stab!” I said, because that was how I felt just then, because Mamie Little had not put the pillow down in front of Toady Williams but in front of Bony, and that didn't mean much, because it only meant that she wanted Bony to have it next, because he would give it to Lucy. So, when he went to kiss Mamie she turned her head and he hardly got any kiss at all, and she had let me kiss her fair and solid. So I felt pretty good. I felt as if she was going to be my girl again. And I guess she was, because when somebody put the pillow in front of her again, she came right to me with it, and that time it was a good kiss too. I felt great!
When us boys was getting our hats, when the party was over, Swatty came up to me.