17CHAPTER II
Partners
For a moment James Botts turned his head away lest she see the deep red flood of shame which had suffused his face. Poor little skinny, homely, orphan kid, thrown out to buck the world for herself, and stopping in her first flight from injustice to help a stranger, only to have him think her a possible criminal! He was glad that his back twinged and his head throbbed; he ought to be kicked out into the ditch and left to die there for harboring such thoughts.
He was a cur, and she–hang it! There was something appealing about her in spite of her looks. Perhaps it was the sturdy self-reliance, which in itself betrayed her utter innocence and ignorance of the world, that made a fellow want to protect her.
In his own circle James Botts had never 18been known as a Sir Galahad, but he had been away from his own circle for exactly nineteen eventful days now, and in that space of time he had learned much. His heart went out in sympathy as he turned once more to her.
But at the moment Lou Lacey seemed in no momentary need of sympathetic understanding. She was pursuing a hapless frog with well-directed shots of small pebbles, and there was an impish grin upon her face.
“How old are you?” he asked suddenly.
Lou shrugged.
“I don’t know. About seventeen or eighteen, I reckon; at least, they told me six years ago that I was twelve, an’ I’ve kept track ever since. When I was sixteen, though, and it was time for me to be got a place somewhere, the matron put me back a couple of years; we were gettin’ more babies from the poor-farm than usual, an’ I was kinder handy with them. She had to let me go now because one of the visitin’ deaconesses let out that she’d seen me there sixteen years ago herself, an’ I was toddlin’ round then. Oh, I missed him!”
The frog, with a triumphant plop, had disappeared 19beneath a flat, submerged stone, and Lou turned to note her companion’s pain-drawn face.
“I’m goin’ to fix that bandage on your head again,” she declared as she sprang to her feet. “Is your back hurtin’ you very much?”