“Never mind; when I’m down on my luck you shall do as much for me.”
“I’ll send you half a dollar from Economy,” he said, resolutely. Then, smiling to temper his ungraciousness, he added, “Short reckonings make long friends, hey?—as an old deacon I knew used to say. I guess I’ll go down-stairs now, Priscilla.”
“What for? You haven’t got to go aboard till nightfall?”
“You’re forgetting the ceiling. I kind o’ want to touch it up all the same.”
“You silly boy,” she said, with a fond smile, “that was only my fun.”
“Priscilla!” He stared at her in reproachful amazement. Was his incurable trust in humanity always to be shaken thus?
“Don’t look so solemn.”
“But you told me a fib!”
“Scat! D’you think I was goin’ to let you fool around on an empty stomach?”
“But you told me a lie.” The boy towered over her like an irate judgment-angel.