“Walley Johnson hears me mine!” continued the child, her eyes very wide open as she weighed Brackett’s qualifications in her merciless little balance.
Here, Brackett was misguided enough to grin, bethinking him that now he “had the laugh” on the Boss and Walley. That grin settled it.
“I dess you don’t know how to hear me say ’em, Jimmy!” she announced inexorably. And picking up the skirt of her blue homespun “nightie,” so that she showed her little red woollen socks and white deer-hide moccasins, she tripped forth into the big, noisy room.
At the bright picture she made, her flax-gold hair tied in a knob on top of her head that it might not get tangled, the room fell silent instantly, and every eye was turned upon her. Nothing abashed by the scrutiny, she made her way sedately down the room and across to McWha’s bench. Unable to ignore her, and angry at the consciousness that he was embarrassed, McWha eyed her with a grim stare. But Rosy-Lilly put out her hands to him confidingly.
“I’m goin’ to let you hear me my prayers,” 128 she said, her clear, baby voice carrying every syllable to the furthest corner of the room.
An ugly light flamed into McWha’s eyes, and he sprang to his feet, brushing the child rudely aside.
“That’s some o’ Jimmy Brackett’s work!” he shouted. “It’s him put ’er up to it, curse him!”
The whole room burst into a roar of laughter at the sight of his wrath. Snatching his cap from its peg, he strode furiously out to the stable, slamming the door behind him.
In their delight over McWha’s discomfiture the woodsmen quite forgot the feelings of Rosy-Lilly. For a second or two she stood motionless, her lips and eyes wide open with amazement. Then, hurt as much by the laughter of the room as by McWha’s rebuff, she burst into tears, and stood hiding her face with both hands, the picture of desolation.
When the men realized that she thought they were laughing at her, they shut their mouths with amazing promptitude, and crowded about her. One after another picked her up, striving to console her with caresses and extravagant promises. She would not uncover her eyes, however, for any one, and her heart-broken wailing was not hushed till Brackett thrust his way through the crowd, growling inarticulate blasphemies at them all, and bore her back to her room. When he emerged twenty minutes later no one asked him about Rosy-Lilly’s prayers. As for Rosy-Lilly, her feelings were this time so 129 outraged that she would no longer look at McWha.