"If you can be civil we'll call it square; if you can't I'll show you how to be," said Gay, calmly.
"We'll call it square," said the first speaker with a smile that was pleasant despite its width. "You're made of the real stuff, if you are a girl."
"Much obliged for your good opinion," replied Gay with an answering smile.
"I'll get even with you!" said the boy who had been tripped up.
"Go ahead," said Gay, coolly.
"You talk big because you're a girl and you think I daren't touch you!" growled the boy.
"I didn't stop to talk big yesterday, did I?" asked Gay, with rising color.
"No, you didn't; you hit like a good one. I'll take it all back about big talk," said the boy, heartily.
"Let's shake hands on that," said Gay, forgetting that girls do not commonly display so much cordiality toward comparative strangers, it being a boy's privilege to be "hail fellow well met" with all.
After a general handshaking, which was accompanied by some embarrassment on the part of the boys, who were unaccustomed to the society of girls and did not know that their new acquaintance was a very poor imitation of one, they told Gay their names and such portions of their history as seemed to fit the occasion.