“Who are those awful children, Henrietta?”
“Part Foleys, some McGuires, two Swansons, the Costeklo twins, and Montmorency Shannon,” was the literal reply.
“What were they trying to do to you?”
“Drown me,” said Henrietta composedly. “But they ain’t ever done it yet. I always manage to get away. I’m cute, I am. But once they most nearly burned me, and Mrs. Foley stopped that. So now they mostly try to drown the witch.”
“‘The witch’?” murmured the amazed Jessie.
“Yep. That’s me. Spotted Snake, the witch. That’s cause I’m so freckled. It’s a great game.”
“I should say it was,” marveled Jessie, and immediately Amy began to laugh again. “I don’t see how you can, Amy,” Jessie complained. “I think it is really terrible.”
“I don’t mind it,” said Henrietta complacently. “It keeps ’em busy and out from under their mothers’ feet.”
“But they shriek and yell so.”
“That don’t hurt ’em. And there’s plenty of outdoors here to yell in. Where we moved from in town, folks complained of the Foleys because they made so much noise. But nobody ever complains here in Dogtown.”