“’Most forgot!” he declared. “I reckon I’d muss that up some if I took it in my fist.”
“Then muss it,” she laughed. “You weren’t always so particular.” And he grabbed, held, 262 and patted the hand that he had known in its childhood.
“Why, little Joan,” he growled, with a suspicious softness in his voice, “you ain’t changed none since you used to sit on the end of that old-fashioned forge, dirty up your pinafores, and cry when Bully led you off. Him and me ain’t friends no more, so’s you could notice. Seven years now since I hit him for cussin’ me for somethin’ that wa’n’t my fault! But, by gee whiz, old Bully Presby could go some! We tipped an anvil over that day, and wrecked a bellows before they pulled us off each other. I’ve always wondered, since then which of us is the better man!”
He spoke with such an air of regret that Joan and Dick laughed outright, and in the midst of it a shadow came across their own, and they turned to meet the amused, complacent stare of Bill. In acknowledging the introduction, Joan felt that his piercing eyes were studying her, probing her soul, as appraisingly as if seeking to lay her appearance and character bare. His harsh, determined face suddenly broke into a wondrous warmth of smile, and he impulsively seized her hand again.
“Say,” he said, “you’ll do! You’re all right!”
And she knew intuitively that this giant of the hills and lonely places had read her, with all her 263 emotions and love, as he would read print, and that, with the quick decision of such men, he was prepared to give her loyal friendship and affection.
They walked slowly around the plant, Dick pointing out their technical progress as they went, and she still further gained Bill’s admiration in the assay-house when she declared that she had a preference for another kind of furnace than they were using.
“Why, say, Miss Presby, can you assay?” he burst out.
“Assay!” she said. “Why, I lived in the assay-house at two or three times, and then studied it afterward.”
“Hey, up there!” a shout came from the roadway below.