"Shont-isham!" (big lie) Hagar interrupted shrilly then, and
Viney relapsed into silence, her thin face growing sullen under
the upbraiding she received in her native tongue. Phoebe,
looking at her attentively, despaired of getting any nearer the
truth from any of them.

There was a sudden check to Hagar's shrewish clamor. The squaws
stiffened to immobility and listened stolidly, their eyes alone
betraying the curiosity they felt. Off somewhere at the head of
the tiny pond, hidden away in the jungle of green, a voice was
singing; a girl's voice, and a strange voice--for the squaws knew
well the few women voices along the Snake.

"That my girl," Phoebe explained, stopping the soft pat--pat of
her butter-ladle.

"Where ketchum yo' girl?" Hagar forgot her petulance, and became
curious as any white woman.

"Me ketchum 'way off, where sun come up. In time me have heap
boys--mebbyso want girl all time. My mother's sister's boy have
one girl, 'way off where sun come up. My mother's sister's boy
die, his wife all same die, that girl mebbyso heap sad; no got
father, no got mother--all time got nobody. Kay bueno. That
girl send one letter, say all time got nobody. Me want one girl.
Me send one letter, tell that girl come, be all time my girl.
Five days ago, that girl come. Her heap glad; boys all time heap
glad, my man heap glad. Bueno. Mebbyso you glad me have one
girl." Not that their approval was necessary, or even of much
importance; but Phoebe was accustomed to treat them like spoiled