But Scipio was impartial. He sat Vada down and picked her brother up. Then, taking the former’s hand in his horny clasp, bore the boy towards the house.
“You found any gold?” inquired Vada, repeating a question she had so often heard her mother put.
“’Es any––dold?” echoed Jamie, from his height above Scipio’s head.
“No, kiddies,” the man replied, with a slight sigh.
“Oh,” said Vada. But his answer had little significance for her.
“Where’s your momma?” inquired Scipio, after a pause.
“Momma do hoss-ridin’,” replied Jamie, forestalling his sister for once.
“Yes,” added Vada. “She gone ridin’. An’ they’ll come an’ take us wher’ ther’s heaps an’ heaps o’ ’piders, an’––an’ bugs an’ things. He said so––sure.”
“He? Who?”
They had reached the hut and Scipio set Jamie on the ground as he put his question.