"My old mammy says," offered Ben Letts, "as how yer son Ezy asked Tessibel Skinner to marry him and as how she slicked him in the face with a dirty dishrag."
He slowly closed the scarlet lids over his crossed eyes, suspending the pickerel in his hand the while.
"Tess ain't had no mother," remonstrated Longman, after a long silence, pausing a moment in his bloody work and allowing his eyes to rest upon the magnificent buildings of the University, rearing above the town, "and Myry says that them what has ought to be satisfied."
Just then a shadow fell upon the shore of the lake near the fishermen.
"There air Tess now," muttered Letts and his two companions eyed a figure clad in rags, with flying copper-colored hair and bare dirty feet, which dropped down beside Longman without asking whether or no.
"Cleanin' fish?" she queried.
"Can't ye see?" growled Ben.
"'Course I can," she answered; "just wondered if ye knowed yerselves."
"Where be yer dad?" queried Longman, smiling as he caught up two long fish, depositing one beside him where it flopped helplessly about upon the hot sand.