'But of course I won't be frightened,' said Rosamond, a little indignantly. 'I've never been easily frightened. Even when I was only two, mamma said I laughed at the niggers singing and dancing at the seaside. Aunt Mattie would think me very silly if I were frightened.'
'She'd be more vexed with us than with you,' said Justin. 'I think on the whole you needn't say anything about the Crags to her. You see you don't quite understand being with boys. We don't go in and tell every little tiny thing we've done. Miss Ward would be sure to find fault with something. And we hate tell-taleing; girls don't think of it the same way.'
'I do,' said Rosamond, flushing a little. 'If you think I'd be a tell-tale I'd rather not go with you.'
'Oh nonsense,' said Archie. 'I'm sure Jus can't think that. Anybody can see you're not that sort of a girl.'
All these remarks put the little girl on her mettle, and, besides this, she was most anxious to gain the good opinion of the two elder boys and to get on happily with them as her aunt had so much wished. Nor was she by nature in the least a cowardly child.
NANCE.
Still when they reached the little cottage on the moor, and she caught sight of Nance standing in the doorway as if looking out for them, she could not help giving a tiny start, for no doubt the old woman was a very strange-looking person.
'She really does look like one of the witches in my picture fairy-book,' thought Rosamond.