Clara. Very likely the briars were so thick between them, Jess, that he never got to the other side for her to tell him.
George. Yes, that’s how ’twas, I count.
Jessie. [Running up to Robin.] I’m going to look at your book along of you, Robin.
Robin. But I’m the one to turn the leaves, remember. [The children sit side by side looking at the picture book. Clara sews. George goes on with the potatoes. As the last one is finished and tossed into the water, he looks at Clara for the first time. A long silence.
George. Miss Clara and me was good friends once on a time.
Clara. Tell me how it was then, George.
George. I did used to put her on the horse’s back, and we would go down to the water trough in the evening time and—
Clara. What else did you and Miss Clara do together, George?
George. Us would walk in the woods aside of one another—And I would lift she to a high branch in a tree—and pretend for to leave her there.
Clara. And then?