"Perhaps she is a whole lot better than she appears," Ruth said mildly. "And I don't think we ought to call her 'Pepperpot.' Tess certainly has found her blind side."
"Ah, of course! Tess is like you," rejoined Agnes. "She would disarm a wild tiger."
"Oh! oh!" cried Neale, hearing this remark—and certainly what Agnes said was wilder than any tiger! "How would you go to work to disarm a tiger, Aggie? Never knew they had arms."
"Oh, Mr. Smartie!"
"I don't know how smart I am," said Neale. "I was setting here thinking——"
"You mean you were sitting," snapped Agnes. "You're neither a hen nor a mason."
"Huh! who said I was?" asked Neale.
"Why," returned the girl, "a hen sets on eggs, and a mason sets the stone in a wall, for instance. You sit on that seat, I should hope."
"Oh, cricky! Get ap, Dobbin and Dewlap! What do you know about Aggie's turning critic all of a sudden?" cried Neale.
"Alas for our learning!" chuckled Ruth. "A hen sets only in colloquial language. To a purist she always sits—according to my English lesson of yesterday.