"Is that the little woman up on the Saco road with a couple of curls an' a mighty sharp tongue?"
"She's got two curls."
"I know her! So she lied to me, eh?"
"Not exactly, sir, for you didn't ask straight out if we were there; but she's awful good and thinks by not tellin' everything it was the same as a lie, so I come over here to tell you she's sorry."
"So she ought to be, the vixen! The idea of a little drop of vinegar like her keepin' that baby away from his mother!"
"Did you know, then, that Louis' mother was huntin' for him?"
"Of course I did, or else why would I have gone gallivantin' 'round the country lookin' for him?"
"Then why didn't you tell her? She'd been only too glad to hear from Mrs. Littlefield, but you made her believe we'd got to be took to the poor farm."
The farmer glared at Jack for an instant, and then it flashed across his mind that the cause of his losing the reward was the lie he told to Aunt Nancy.
This was not a consoling thought to one who had mourned so deeply over the loss of the prospective money as had Mr. Pratt, and the only relief he could find was in scolding Jack.