“Now,” continued Mr. Came, “have you made out to keep the rope from under her feet?”
“She ain't got t-t-tangled up one s-single time,” said Elisha, stuttering in his excitement, but looking up with some courage from his bare toes, with which he was assiduously threading the grass.
“So far, so good. Now bout bein' afraid. As you seem so certain of gettin' the cow, I suppose you hain't been a speck scared, hev you? Honor bright, now!”
“I—I—not but just a little mite. I”—
“Hold up a minute. Of course you didn't SAY you was afraid, and didn't SHOW you was afraid, and nobody knew you WAS afraid, but that ain't the way we fixed it up. You was to call the cow your'n if you could drive her to the pasture for a month without BEIN' afraid. Own up square now, hev you be'n afraid?”
A long pause, then a faint, “Yes.”
“Where's your manners?”
“I mean yes, sir.”
“How often? If it hain't be'n too many times mebbe I'll let ye off, though you're a reg'lar girl-boy, and'll be runnin' away from the cat bimeby. Has it be'n—twice?”
“Yes,” and the Little Prophet's voice was very faint now, and had a decided tear in it.