“I’ll run away and be a pirate—that’s just what I’ll do,” choked Sammy, his old obsession enveloping his harassed thoughts. “I’ll show ’em! They’ll be sorry they treated me so—all of ’em.”
Just who “’em” were was rather vague in Sammy Pinkney’s mind. But the determination to get away from all these older people, whom he considered had abused him, was not vague at all.
CHAPTER IV—THE GYPSY TRAIL
Mr. Pinkney, Sammy’s father, heard all about it before he arrived home, for he always passed the side door of the old Corner House on his return from business. He came at just that time when Neale O’Neil was telling the assembled family—including Mrs. McCall, Uncle Rufus, and Linda the maid-of-all-work—about the utter wreck of the beet bed.
“I’ve saved what I could—set ’em out, you know, and soaked ’em well,” said the laughing Neale. “But make up your mind, Mrs. McCall, that you’ll have to buy a good share of your beets this winter.”
“Well! What do you know about that, Mr. Pinkney?” demanded Agnes of their neighbor, who had halted at the gate.
“Just like that boy,” responded Mr. Pinkney, shaking his head over his son’s transgressions.
“Just the same,” Neale added, chuckling, “Sammy says you showed him which were weeds and which were beets, Aggie.”
“Of course I did,” flung back the quick-tempered Agnes. “And so did Uncle Rufus. But that boy is so heedless—”
“I agree that Sammy pays very little attention to what is told him,” said Sammy’s father.