fixed upon a crimson patch on the hillside where the sun was going down,
and seeing that her eyes sparkled strangely (for indeed they were not
pretty eyes) he said nothing, like the bully little scout that he was.

"Anyway, one thing, I wouldn't let an old bridge get my goat, I
wouldn't," he said finally, "and besides, you said you would show me
a woodchuck hole."


CHAPTER VI

THE WAY OF THE SCOUT

Pepsy's right name was Penelope Pepperall and Aunt Jamsiah had
taken her out of the County Home after the fire episode, by way of
saving her from the worse influence of a reformatory. She and Uncle
Ebenezer had agreed to be responsible for the girl, and Pepsy had
spent a year of joyous freedom at the farm marred only by the threat
hanging over her that she would be restored to the authorities upon
the least suspicion of misconduct.

She had done her work faithfully and become a help and a comfort
to her benefactors. She had a snappy temper and a sharp tongue and was,
indeed, something of a tomboy. But Aunt Jamsiah, though often annoyed
and sometimes chagrined, took a charitable view of these shortcomings
and her generous heart was not likely to confound them with genuine
misdoing.

So the stern condition of Pepsy's freedom had become something of
a dead letter, except in her own fearful fancy, and particularly when