The Little Colonel's chum : Mary Ware . n-tally apologized to the wild-cat for her inhospitablereception, and electrified Norman by an offer tohelp him build a more suitable cage for it than thecoop in which it was confined. Norman, who hadunbounded faith in Marys ability as a carpenter,accepted her offer joyfully. She wasnt like somegirls he had known. When she drove a nail it heldthings together, and whatever she built would bestrong enough to hold any beast he might choose toput in it. Now, if I could get a couple of coyotes and abadger and a fox or two, he remarked, Id befixed. Mary, who w
The Little Colonel's chum : Mary Ware . n-tally apologized to the wild-cat for her inhospitablereception, and electrified Norman by an offer tohelp him build a more suitable cage for it than thecoop in which it was confined. Norman, who hadunbounded faith in Marys ability as a carpenter,accepted her offer joyfully. She wasnt like somegirls he had known. When she drove a nail it heldthings together, and whatever she built would bestrong enough to hold any beast he might choose toput in it. Now, if I could get a couple of coyotes and abadger and a fox or two, he remarked, Id befixed. Mary, who was sorting over a pile of old boardsback of the woodshed, paused in alarm. It strikes me, young man, she said, a trifle sar-castically, that the more some people get the morethey want. Your wishes seem to be on the JacksBean-stalk scale. They grow to reach the sky in asingle night. Suppose you did have those things,you wouldnt be satisfied. It would be a zebra anda giraffe and a jungle tiger next. No, it wouldnt, he declared. I wouldnt. WHEN SHE DROVE A NAIL IT HELD THINGS TOGETHER. THE LITTLE COLONELS CHUM 281 know how to take care of them, but I do know howto feed the things that live around here. What do you want them for ? Well, you know what Huldah said about sum-mer campers. Theres always a lot of boys along,and if I had a sort of menagerie theyd want to comeover and play circus, and then theyd let me inon their ball-games and things. Its awful lone-some with school out and Billy Downs gone backEast. Theres so few fellows here my age, andJack wont let me play much with the little Mexi-cans. They arent much fun anyhow when I canttalk their lingo. Mary straightened up, hammer in hand, andsquinted her eyes thoughtfully, a way she had whensomething puzzled her. It had not occurred to herthat Norman had social longings like her own whichLone-Rock failed to satisfy. He watched her anx-iously. That preoccupied squint always meant thatinteresting developments would follow. Norman
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