"Oh, her dad's with her, an' I guess he'll round her up all right. I'm most starved, ma. Got anything good?"
Mrs. Dempster was a bright, active, talkative little body, and she bade
Douglas a hearty welcome.
"So ye'r the great wrestler, are ye?" she asked, as she offered her visitor a chair, and then hustled about to get some food. "Empty has told me all about ye, an' how ye defended him aginst Jake. It was mighty good of ye, an' sez I to Empty, sez I, 'bring that man home with ye some time, so I kin thank him fer his kindness to a poor fatherless boy.'"
"I didn't do much, I assure you," Douglas replied. "I don't believe
Jake would have hurt him."
"No, Jake wouldn't really mean to hurt him, that's true. But ye see, he's so big an' strong that what he might think was a little love tap alongside of the head would knock an ox down. He doesn't intend to hurt. But when Si Stubbles hits, he means it, an' so does Ben. My, I'm mighty glad ye did up that skunk to-night. He deserved it all right."
"So you've heard about that already?" Douglas asked in surprise.
Mrs. Dempster poured a cup of hot tea, brought forth a plate of frosted doughnuts, and bade Douglas "draw up an' have a bite." When her visitor had been served, she sat down on a chair by the side of the table.
"Ye seem surprised that I know about that racket at the hall," she began. "Empty was watchin' at the door, an' saw it all. He was hustlin' home by the short-cut across the hills to tell me the news when he heard Jean singin'. Say, I admire ye'r pluck. But ye must be keerful, sir."
"Why?"
"It's always necessary to be keerful when ye'r dealin' with skunks. Ye jist never know what they're goin' to do next."