“He wouldn’t make us dislike anybody. That can’t be the right reason.”
“Then I know not. Though I am getting old I’m not so wise, little one. But–ought I? Ought I not?”
“What?”
“Now you hark me. This Ephraim–guess you what that Antonio said of him?”
“How should I? Yes, that’s not the truth. But what he said was so dreadful I wouldn’t even tell my mother.”
“Ach! A child should tell the mother all things. Heed that. It is so we train our Otto.”
Jessica laughed.
“Otto is no child. He is a grown man. He is bigger than you. You should not shame him by keeping him a boy always.”
“Pst! girl! I would not he heard you, for my life.”
“He’ll not hear. Elsa is talking. But what did Antonio say about my old ‘Forty-niner’?”