“Don’t worry about that!”
“And you the oldest!” she added, suddenly. “I suppose the other six will be doing the same, now!”
“If a brother of mine did a thing like that, I’d kill him!” cried Wully fiercely.
It soothed her to have something not tragic to reprove him for.
“Wully,” she said severely, “don’t you speak words like them here! ’Tis something you learned in the army! A fine one you’d be to say who should live and who should die! We dinna say the like here!”
“I can’t please you any way!” he cried, stung by her upbraidings.
“Strange ways you have of trying!” she retorted. He said nothing. She cried again, presently,
“If only it had been some other girl, Wully! Not Jeannie’s!”
What could he answer?