It has the figures down at
the bottom; and she whops it every morning."
Ruth laughed.
"What do you try to tease her for?" said Mrs. Holabird.
"It doesn't tease her. She thinks it's funny. She laughed, and you
only puckered."
Ruth laughed again. "It wasn't only that," she said.
"Well, what then?"
"To think you knew."
"Knew! Why shouldn't I know? It's big enough."
"Yes,--but about the whopping. And the figures are the smallest part
of the difference. You're a pretty noticing boy, Steve."
Steve colored a little, and his eye twinkled. He saw that Ruth had
caught him out.
"I guess you set it for a goody-trap," he said. "Folks can't help
reading sign-boards when they go by. And besides, it's like the man
that went to Van Amburgh's. I shall catch you forgetting, some fine
day, and then I'll whop the whole over for you."
Ruth had been mending stockings, and was just folding up the last
pair. She did not say any more, for she did not want to tease Stephen
in her turn; but there was a little quiet smile just under her lips
that she kept from pulling too hard at the corners, as she got up and
went away with them to her room.
She stopped when she got to the open door of it, with her basket in
her hand, and looked in from the threshold at the hanging scroll of
Scripture texts printed in large clear letters,--a sheet for each day
of the month,--and made to fold over and drop behind the black-walnut
rod to which they were bound.
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