"Where ye goin' after supper?"
"To Ithaca."
"Air ye leg a hurtin' ye much?"
"Yep."
"Granny Cronk says as how yer pains be rheumatiz. If ye stay in out of the night air, ye'll get well."
"Pappy Lon won't let me," sighed Flukey.
He sank down on the cabin threshold, and as he spoke drew a blue trouser leg slowly up.
"Damn knee!" he groaned. "It gets so twisted! And sometimes I can't walk."
"Be ye goin' to steal again tonight?" asked the girl, bending toward him.
"Yep, with Pappy Lon and Lem. I hate it all, I do!" he cried impetuously.