Rosie was all sympathy. "Oh, Dad, I'm so sorry! It must ha' been horrid riding all day on a flat wheel."
Jamie took a puff or two, then announced: "I didn't mind it."
"Well, Dad, did you report it?"
Jamie scratched his head, as if in an effort to remember, and at last said: "Sure."
After a decent interval, Rosie began again: "Say, Dad, what'd you think of a man who chased his wife with a hatchet?"
Rosie thought it would be a little indelicate to come right out with butcher-knife. Hatchet was near enough, anyway. Rosie's idea was that her father would betray himself by defending the husband. When he did, she expected to tell him that she knew all. Her imagination did not carry her beyond this. She was prepared, however, for something horrible.
Jamie O'Brien turned his head almost quickly. "With a hatchet, did you say, Rosie?"
"Yes, Dad, with a hatchet."
"That's bad. And is it some one around here that we know?"
"No, it ain't anybody. I was just saying, what would you think of a man who did that?"