The old woman waved aside this greeting
with her stick.—Page 212.
“I’m much obliged for that much anyhow,” said Billie at last. “You must be tired and hungry. Won’t you come back to the camp and let me give you——” she paused to consider. What could an old stunted apple tree like? Somehow it didn’t seem as if she could live on real food. “Will you drink a cup of tea?” she added hastily.
The wrinkled face remained inscrutable.
“Or coffee?”
“Coffee?” repeated the old soul, and suddenly without the faintest warning, smiled and Billie smiled back.
“I can make delicious strong coffee,” announced the girl proudly. “You will come, won’t you?”
“I come,” answered the herb-gatherer. “Coffee? I come!”
They walked briskly back to camp, this ill-assorted couple, and it was not long before Billie had established her companion in a chair under the trees and the coffee pot on the kerosene stove, where it was soon sending out a fragrant aroma.
“Don’t you get very tired gathering herbs on the mountains?” asked Billie, by way of making conversation.
“When I tired, I rest,” answered the other briefly.