To his credit be it said, Mr. Jensen did not deny her too abruptly. Instead he spread his knees and arms and, smiling genially, beckoned her to him.
“I can’t, I’m all kerosene,” she said.
“Never you mind,” he said. “You come and stand right here while I tell you how it is.”
So she set down the lantern and stepped forward and stood between his knees and then he lifted her into his lap. “Well, well, well, you’re quite a girl; you’re quite a little girl, ain’t you, huh? So you came all the way in the dark to ask me that! Here, you sit right where you are and never you mind about kerosene; if you ain’t scared of the dark I reckon I ain’t scared of kerosene. Now, I want you should listen ’cause I’m going to tell you jes’ how it is n’ then you’ll understand. Because I call you a little kind of a—a herro-ine, that’s what I call you.”
He wasn’t half wrong about that, either....
CHAPTER XXVII
SEEN IN THE DARK
So then he told her how it was about the County Fair, which shortly would open. He told her very gently and kindly how Northvale had been chosen because it was the county seat and how he was powerless to change the plans.
He looked around into her sober face, and sometimes lifted it to his, and at almost every hope-blighting sentence, asked her if she did not understand. He told her all about how county fairs are big things, planned by many men, months and months in advance. And at each pause and each gently asked question she nodded silently, as if it was all quite clear and plausible, but her heart was breaking.
“But I’m not going to forget that good turn I owe you, no, siree,” he added finally as he set her down on the porch, much to Wiggle’s relief. “And I’m coming down the road to pay you a visit n’ look over that refreshment store of yours n’ see if I can’t make some suggestions maybe. Now, what do you say to that?”