"No," he said again.
"But I want you to court me," she persisted.
"I don't care what you want," he retorted. "I won't court you because I don't want to court you. I don't like you. You're too much of a girner for me!"
"I'm not a girner," she protested.
"You are. You start crying the minute anything happens to you or if people won't do what you want them to do. I wouldn't marry a girner for the wide world!"
"I won't girn any more if you'll court me," she promised.
"I daresay," he replied skeptically.
She considered for a moment or two. "Well, if you won't court me," she said, "I'll let Andy Cairnduff court me!"
"He can have you," said John, undismayed by the prospect of the schoolmaster's son as a rival.
She stood before him for a little while, without speaking. Then she turned and walked a little distance from him. She stopped, with her back turned towards him, and he knew by the way her head was bent, that she was thinking out a way of retaliating on him. The end of her pinafore was in her mouth!... She turned to him sharply, letting the pinafore fall from her lips, and pointing at him with her finger, she began to laugh shrilly.