“What?”

“Who's your father? Who's your dad?”

“Daddy Dan. You ask a lot of things,” she added, disapprovingly.

“Come on in,” pleaded Vic Gregg, “and I won't ask nothin' more about you.”

“Munner says no,” she repeated.

She employed the moment of indecision by plucking at the hair of Bart's shoulders; he growled softly, terribly, but she paid not the slightest heed.

“Your mother won't care,” asserted Vic.

“I know,” she nodded, “but Daddy will.”

“Spanking?”

She looked blankly at him.