The tall lad beside her seemed genuinely surprised at this statement.
“I suppose you know what you are talking about, Chicken Little, but I’m blamed if I do.”
283“It’s the way you take my books and—”
“Yes?” Sherm was still more surprised. Then an idea popping into his mind, “Oh, I presume you’d like to have me take off my hat and make you a profound reverence as your favorite heroes do in novels. What in thunder you girls find to like in those trashy novels is more than I can see!”
Chicken Little bristled. “Hm-n, Walter Scott and Washington Irving, trashy! Shows how much you know, if you have graduated from High School, Sherman Dart! Besides, I didn’t mean any such thing. Only, you sort of take my things without asking–as if–as if—” She was getting into rather deeper water than she had anticipated.
“Yes, as if what?”
“Oh, I don’t suppose you mean it that way–but you act as if I was only a silly little girl–and didn’t count!”
Chicken Little was decidedly red in the face by the time she finished.
Sherm didn’t say anything for a moment, but he continued to look at her. He looked at her as if he had found something about her he hadn’t noticed before.
“Who put that idea into your head?–Mamie?”