The poor child broke out laughing, "Oh, shucks!" Then her face went bitter. "She said she loved me, eh?"
"She said I was a beastly little cad compared with you. When I got home from college she held you up for a holy example, and rubbed my nose in it. She was right—but how I cursed you!"
Curly laughed faint and lay back moaning, for the sun had come hot from the clouds, and she was burning with pain. "So yo' mother claimed she loved me. Well, I know better!"
"Why didn't you stay with her, Curly?"
"I seen her face when she waited for you to come home—you, Jim, and she looked sure hungry. What was I to her, when she seen her own son a-coming? I waited to see you, Jim; I jest had to see you 'cause you was pizen to me. Then I went away 'cause I'd have killed you if I'd seen you any mo'."
"Where did you go?"
"Whar I belong, back to the wolf pack. What had I to do with a home, and a mother, with shelter, and livin' safe, and bein' loved? I'm only a wolf with a bounty on my hide, to be hunted down and shot."
"And you—a girl!"
"No, a mistake!"
Jim pawed out, and grabbed her small brown hand. "You came back," he whispered.