“He won't, won't he?” exclaimed the large lady, savagely. “Oh, he's a precious one, he is! An' some day I shall just give him a good shakin' up, that's what I'll do. I get all out of patience with that man's ugliness.”
“An' she'll do just what she says,” said the skeleton to Toby, with an admiring shake of the head. “That woman hain't afraid of anybody, an' I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she did give Job a pretty rough time.”
Toby thought, as he looked at her, that she was large enough to give 'most anyone a pretty rough time, but he did not venture to say so. While he was looking first at her, and then at her very thin husband, the skeleton told his wife the little that he had learned regarding the boy's history; and when he had concluded she waddled away toward her tent.
“Great woman that,” said the skeleton, as he saw her disappear within the tent.
“Yes,” said Toby, “she's the greatest I ever saw.”
“I mean that she's got a great head. Now you'll see about how much she cares for what Job says.”
“If I was as big as her,” said Toby, with just a shade of envy in his voice, “I wouldn't be afraid of anybody.”
“It hain't so much the size,” said the skeleton, sagely—“it hain't so much the size, my boy; for I can scare that woman almost to death when I feel like it.”
Toby looked for a moment at Mr. Treat's thin legs and arms, and then he said, warningly, “I wouldn't feel like it very often if I was you, Mr. Treat, 'cause she might break some of your bones if you didn't happen to scare her enough.”
“Don't fear for me, my boy—don't fear for me; you'll see how I manage her if you stay with the circus long enough. Now I often—”