Again the girl flashed the young homesteaders a look of gratitude, then mounted the stairs and opened a door in the loft.
“My room ain’t much to look at, but it’s clean,” she apologized, pausing in the evident hope that her words would be denied; then, as neither boy spoke, she said: “Supper will be ready when you come down.”
Until they could no longer hear her footsteps on the stairs, Phil and Ted kept silence.
“It’s a shame the way that brute Peleg bullies the poor little thing!” growled Ted. “Just look at the way she has tried to decorate her room. Four lithographs and three of them beer advertisements. I’ve brought a bunch of etchings for my room and I’ll give some of them to her. But when Momsy comes, we’ll have her take Jennie to live with us.”
“Easy, Ted, easy! We shall have about all we can do to take care of Momsy and the girls. What do you think of Andy?”
“That he’s better educated than he makes out. But about Jennie. We can take her all right. Just think of those lumberjacks calling her ‘Spider.’ Didn’t you see how she winced when she said it?”
“It’s too bad. I’ll admit. However, we can talk about her later. I’m as hungry as a bear, so let’s get into some comfortable clothes as quickly as we can and go down to the kitchen.”
When Peleg had announced that none of the men from the camp would appear at the store, he was mistaken. While the boys were eating the delicious flapjacks that Jennie was frying, there sounded the tramp of heavy feet in the front part of the building and a voice called:
“Spider, come here!”
“Set still!” snapped Peleg, as his daughter looked at him, her face white.