But Uncle Hiram had overheard Catherine’s remark. And if Elizabeth Ann and Doris had ever wondered whether he could be really cross, they knew the answer now. Uncle Hiram was not at all pleased.
“I don’t know what your father would say, Kitty, if he heard you make a remark like that,” said Uncle Hiram. “Roger Calendar is a fine boy in every respect. I hope the other pupils in school don’t feel toward him as you do.”
“Oh, no one pays any attention to him,” Catherine replied. “He keeps to himself. I guess he doesn’t feel just right among the rest of us. I don’t think the Bostwicks ought to send him to school, but Mr. Bostwick told my father he had to; there’s a law that all children have to be educated.”
“It’s a pity there isn’t a law that says all children have to be taught kindness and politeness,” said Uncle Hiram. “I hope Elizabeth Ann and Doris will have too much sense to follow your example.”
Catherine Gould didn’t seem abashed. She merely smiled a little, as though Uncle Hiram was mistaken about her. Then she told Elizabeth Ann that she would stop for her and Doris the next morning “in time to get the bus,” and went out of the store. Elizabeth Ann saw her cross the street and get into a beautiful dark blue car—a much larger and handsomer car than Uncle Hiram’s.
“Isn’t she pretty!” said Doris wistfully. “And did you see her dress? I wanted a new dress, but Mother said I’d better wait till Christmas time.”
“I don’t like her so much,” Elizabeth Ann declared.
“Catherine is a nice girl,” said Uncle Hiram who had wonderful hearing and seldom missed a word. “She’s a fine girl, in many ways; but her father is the wealthiest man in this township, and Catherine is the only child and I’m afraid she is a little spoiled. No one but a silly, spoiled girl would talk as she does about Roger Calendar.”
“Is he the taken boy who was lost?” asked Elizabeth Ann quickly.
“Oh, my, no,” Uncle Hiram answered. “That poor boy must live many miles away from us. I never saw the man before who was searching for him. Roger Calendar lives with the Bostwicks whose land adjoins ours on one side. The Goulds live on the other side. Catherine and Roger must go in to school every morning on the same bus, when school is in session; I don’t like to think of her being rude to him.”