Amy went off into a gale of laughter while the boys grinned. They were very well acquainted with Henrietta’s ways. But Jessie shook her head and beckoned the little freckled girl to her.
“Do you think that is a nice way to talk?” she asked Henrietta. “I know you learn to forgive your enemies in the Sunday School.”
“Yes, Miss Jessie. I forgive ’em in the Sunday School. But this isn’t Sunday School. You got to take your own part, or nobody won’t help you. Mrs. Foley says so. How d’you s’pose a little, homely thing like me could have got the best of all those Dogtown kids if I didn’t make ’em afraid of me? They know I’m a witch and can put the curse on ’em.”
“That is an awful way to talk,” admonished Jessie. “And Amy and I won’t like you if you talk that way. It’s all right to play being Spotted Snake; but to use bad language and say ugly things isn’t nice at all.”
Henrietta looked at the older girl very closely while she said this. Her face fell a little for, after all, she did not want to displease the Roselawn girl.
“All right, Miss Jessie. I’ll try to be good like you say——”
“Be it ever so painful,” added Amy, who was listening and laughing.
“Just the same,” the freckled little girl added, “I put the bad weather on ’em for to-morrow—you see if I didn’t.”
The launch transported them to the Dogtown landing within a very few minutes, and when they got there no automobile was in sight. But Montmorency Shannon, grinning broadly, was lounging on the dock.
“Hey! What did he do to you, Mont?” shouted the boys.