Hoodie looked up with a mixture of shame and defiance.
"Oh, Hoodie, I am so sorry. I thought you had quite left off everything like that," said her cousin.
One or two big tears crept slowly out of the corners of Hoodie's eyes.
"They shouldn't say I was telling untrue things," she muttered. "'Tisn't my fault."
"Oh! Miss Hoodie," said Martin, injudiciously, "how can you say so? I'm sure, Miss," she went on, turning to Magdalen, "no one said a word to put her out. She was telling fairy stories like, to Master Duke and Master Hec, and they began asking her to explain and she would say it was quite true, not fairy stories at all. And Miss Maudie just tried to show her she shouldn't say that, and then you see, Miss, she flew into a temper."
"What were the stories about, Hoodie?" inquired Miss King, kindly.
Hoodie vouchsafed not a word in reply.
Magdalen glanced at the others.
"I'll tell," said Duke. "They was about things up in the sky, you know."
"Angels, do you mean?" said Miss King.