"Yes? But what?"

"Don't you think--don't you think it is pretty dark for little
girls to be out?"

Jed looked at her, stepped to the door, opened it and looked out,
and then turned back again.

"Why," he admitted, "it is gettin' a little shadowy in the corners,
maybe. It will be darker in an hour or so. But you think it's too
dark for little girls already, eh?"

She nodded. "I don't think Mamma would like me to be out when it's
so awful dark," she said.

"Hum! . . . Hum. . . . Does your mamma know where you are?"

The young lady's toe marked a circle on the shop floor.

"No-o," she confessed, "I--I guess she doesn't, not just exactly."

"I shouldn't be surprised. And so you've come back because you was
afraid, eh?"

She swallowed hard and edged a little nearer to him.

"No-o," she declared, stoutly, "I--I wasn't afraid, not very; but--
but I thought the--the swordfish was pretty heavy to carry all
alone and--and so--"