“You’re right. There’s such a thing as overbeatin’––everything. Well, laddies, we’re all back in here together again, and auntie wants you to tell Mr. Ma’sh where you got that candy; who give it to you; what for; where you saw that sneaky snake, Antonio Bernal; what you’ve done with the staff wand; and all the rest of it? ‘Forty-niner’ is a man and a gentleman–––”
“Here the sharpshooter bowed profoundly, acknowledging the compliment with a humorous expression; 135 but the matron continued as if she had not observed him:
“You see, I know all about it, even if you wouldn’t tell. I’m one has eyes on the back of my head and on its top, too, I tell you, so you needn’t try to think I don’t see what’s going on, for I do.”
The faces of her small listeners showed utter amazement; then with one of his flashlike movements Ned sprang to the back of her chair and passed his hand rapidly all over her gray curls.
“Where are they, Aunt Sally? I can’t find ’em. I never saw ’em in all my life, and do––do, please, show them to me!” he implored.
Luis scrambled up the other side, and echoed:
“Never show ’em in m’life!”
“That’s all right. I don’t keep ’em in exhibition, but they’re there all the same.”
“Sally Benton!” expostulated Ephraim. “Don’t tell them wrong stories.”
“But it isn’t a wrong story; it’s a right one. If they’re not real, actual eyes, there’s something in my head takes their place. Might as well say ‘eyes’ as ‘brains,’ I judge. But, be you going to answer, Edward Trent? I’ve got a prime lot of cookin’ to do again, and no time to waste. ’Cause if you ain’t I’ll just take Mr. Ma’sh with me and lock you shavers in here alone, where you’ll be safe, but sort of homesick. I shan’t leave no candle burnin’, for you to set the house afire with. So you best tell, right away, and then be let out to have a good time.”