"What's the matter, Sammy?" she asked.
"Ain't nothin' the matter," he denied, kicking on the pickets again.
"Dear me," sighed Dot, "I just think everything's too mean for anything!"
"Huh!"
"And everybody at my house is mean to me, too," added the little girl, stirring up her own bile by the audible reiteration of her thoughts. "Yes, they are!"
"Huh!" repeated the scornful Sammy. "They ain't nowhere near as mean to you as my folks are to me."
"You don't know—"
"Did they lick you?" demanded the boy fiercely.
"No-o."