"
"Four," replied Jonathan, laying one forefinger by the side of his
nose and winking at his sister. "I was sort of sorry for father, he
got so tuckered trying to make me cry. Jimmeny, though, that veal pie
looks good. I should hated to have lost that. You was real good to
fetch it up.
"T'was only fair, though, this time," he continued, with his mouth
full, "for t'was on 'count o' you I got to fightin."
"What do you mean?" said she.
"Why, Obadiah's been tellin the biggest set o' lies about you I ever
heard of. He's been tellin em all over town. He said you went over to
Elnathan Hamlin's, Wednesday, and got down on your knees to that Cap'n
Hamlin, so's to get him not to have no more o' those horse-fiddles in
front of Uncle's and our houses. You better believe I walloped him
well, if he is bigger than me."
Jonathan, busy with eating, had not observed his sister's face during
this recital, but now he said, glancing up:
"What on earth do you s'pose put such a lie into his head?"
"It isn't all a lie, Jonathan."
The boy laid down his knife and fork, and stared at her aghast.
"You don't mean you was over there?" he exclaimed.
Desire's face was crimson to the roots of her hair.
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