“Much protection he would be.”
“Well, then, Dan Overton was with him. How is he for protection?”
“Thoroughly competent, no doubt,” agreed Miss Lavina, with a rather scandalized look. “But, my dear, the propriety?”
“Do you think Flap-Jacks would help any one out in propriety?” retorted ’Tana. “But we won’t stumble over that question long, for I want to leave the camp and go back to the Ferry.”
“And then, ’Tana?”
“And then—I don’t know, Mrs. Huzzard, to school, maybe—though I feel old for that, older than either of you, I am sure—so old that I care nothing for all the 260 things I wanted less than a year ago. They are within my reach now, yet I only want to rest—”
She did not finish the sentence.
Mrs. Huzzard, noticing the tired look in her eyes and the wistfulness of her voice, reached out and patted her head affectionately.
“You want, first of all, to grow strong and hearty, like you used to be—that is what you need first, then the rest will all come right in good time. You’ll want to see the theaters, and the pictures, and hear the fine music you used to talk of. And you’ll travel, and see all the fine places you used to dream about. Then, maybe, you’ll get ambitious, like you used to be, about making pictures out of clay. For you can have fine teaching now, you know, and you’ll find, after a while, that the days will hardly seem long enough for all the things you want to do. That is how it will be when you get strong again.”
’Tana tried to smile at the cheerful picture, but the smile was not a merry one. Her attention was given to Lyster and Overton, whom she could see from the tent door.