"I don't trust him, either. I bet he knows more about what happened at the Evergreen banquet than we do. You'll see. We'll know all about it some day. Did you take a good look at him, Tessie?"
Tessie nodded tearfully. "Fat and white, like a nasty worm," she gulped.
Granny added a feature to Tessie's sketch. "And a big nose! You remember it was a man with white hair and a big nose that stole the record of your ma's and pa's wedding. Don't you forget that, Tessie Gilfooly! That man tried to make us think he was honest, coming here and offering to buy your islands. But he ain't honest. You can tell that as soon as you look at him. There's something queer in this business, Tessie! I don't understand it, but you look out for that man. He's got a bad eye. Dear, dear, I wish Joe Cary was still boarding with us! I trusted Joe Cary!"
Tessie moved away impatiently, and then came back to kiss Granny's cheek. "Don't you fret, Granny," she said in her turn. "What could that Pracht man do to me?"
"He could kidnap you and turn you over to those cannibals!" Granny tremulously told her of one thing that Pracht could do. "And you heard how they treat rulers they don't like? I declare, Tessie, I wish your Uncle Pete had left those islands to an orphan asylum instead of to you! It ain't going to be all pleasure being a queen!"
[XV]
In spite of her brave words, Tessie did not feel brave when she thought of Frederic Pracht and his threats. She shivered and turned pale, and there was a frightened look in her big blue eyes. She wondered if Mr. Pracht had told her the truth about the islands and the people and their customs—their barbarous customs.
She suddenly discovered that she knew almost nothing about the kingdom her Uncle Pete had left to her. She had been a queen for almost a month, and she had been so busy spending the island revenues that she had scarcely glanced in her library books. She blushed with shame. Joe Cary, who had no claim to the islands at all, knew far more about them than she did. He talked as if the Sons of Sunshine were like the I. W. W. or anarchists who threw bombs when and where they pleased. Now that she realized how ignorant she was, Tessie could not understand how she had been satisfied to know nothing. She had only been interested in spending the money Mr. Marvin had given her. She had not taken so much as a minute to learn anything about the history of the islands, nor anything about the people who lived on the islands. It wasn't right, she told herself with shame.