"Now you're shouting!" applauded Gene, also with the intent to be shocking.
"THAT'S the stuff," approved Clark, grinning at Evadna's horrified eyes.
"Grant can run over me sharp-shod and I won't say a word, for what he did day before yesterday," declared Jack, opening his eyes and looking straight at Evadna. "You don't see any tears rolling down MY cheeks, I hope?"
"Good Injun's the stuff, all right. He'd 'a' licked the hull damn--"
"Now, Donny, be careful what language you use," Phoebe admonished, and so cut short his high-pitched song of praise.
"I don't care--I think it's perfectly awful." Evadna looked distastefully upon her breakfast. "I just can't sleep in that room, Aunt Phoebe. I tried not to think about it, but it opens right that way."
"Huh!" snorted Wally. "Board up the window, then, so you can't see the fatal spot!" His gray eyes twinkled. "I could DANCE on it myself," he said, just to horrify her--which he did. Evadna shivered, pressed her wisp of handkerchief against her lips, and left the table hurriedly.
"You boys ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" Phoebe scolded half-heartedly; for she had lived long in the wild, and had seen much that was raw and primitive. "You must take into consideration that Vadnie isn't used to such things. Why, great grief! I don't suppose the child ever SAW a dead man before in her life--unless he was laid out in church with flower-anchors piled knee-deep all over him. And to see one shot right before her very eyes--and by the man she expects--or did expect to marry--why, you can't wonder at her looking at it the way she does. It isn't Vadnie's fault. It's the way she's been raised."
"Well," observed Wally in the manner of delivering an ultimatum, "excuse ME from any Eastern raising!"
A little later, Phoebe boldly invaded the secret chambers of Good Indian's heart when he was readjusting the rocks which formed the floor of the milk-house.
"Now, Grant," she began, laying her hand upon his shoulder as he knelt before her, straining at a heavy rock, "Mother Hart is going to give you a little piece of her mind about something that's none of her business maybe."
"You can give me as many pieces as you like. They're always good medicine," he assured her. But he kept his head bent so that his hat quite hid his face from her. "What about?" he asked, a betraying tenseness in his voice.
"About Vadnie--and you. I notice you don't speak--you haven't that I've seen, since that day--on the porch. You don't want to be too hard on her, Grant. Remember she isn't used to such things. She looks at it different. She's never seen the times, as I have, where it's kill or be killed. Be patient with her, Grant--and don't feel hard. She'll get over it. I want," she stopped because her voice was beginning to shake "--I want my biggest boy to be happy." Her hand slipped around his neck and pressed his head against her knee.