“Why?”
“Because I haven’t any books.” Then her face brightened as an idea came to her and she said:
“Perhaps Steve has one he’ll lend me.”
“You need not bother to ask him, I have plenty,” smiled Ted. “Now let’s hurry up with the dishes, so we can begin.”
Neither Jennie nor her father would listen to their guests helping in such work, however, and the boys passed through the store with Peleg and seated themselves on the steps while the storekeeper filled his pipe and smoked.
“It was kind in you to take Jennie’s part, but I wouldn’t do it again,” he observed.
“Why not?” asked Phil and Ted, almost in the same breath.
“Because you ain’t big enough to back it up. If it hadn’t been for Steve, I don’t know what would have happened. I was getting my gun, but if you’d mixed it, ’twould have been hard work telling which was which to shoot.”
“There wouldn’t have been any need to use it,” said the same quiet voice that had terminated the threatened trouble in the store.
“You back, Steve? I ain’t heered any train,” declared Peleg.