"Play I'm a doormat if you want
to, but I cross my heart and body I didn't mean to hurt you by letting
my mouth overwork at the wrong time. The Dumpling is just a sponge
that sops up any old thing and lets any old body squeeze it out of
her. Please say you forgive me."
"Why, Tony," I said with difficult but becoming gravity, "don't you
know that I know that you didn't mean to do anything to hurt me?" I
couldn't bring myself to mention Father or the shameful circumstances
and I hoped he wouldn't, either.
Tony is not a mere boy; he is a kind gentleman, also, and he ignored
the subject we were discussing just as carefully as I did.
"Good for you, girliky, and I hope you fully realize that this little
old burg of Byrdsville is all for you and anxious to hop rig-lit into
your pocket," he said most picturesquely, with relief at my not being
hurt at him beginning to pull the corners of his mouth into the grin
that he had put away as not suitable for the occasion.
A person who has the smile habit fixed on his face is a very valuable
friend, and I was glad to see Tony put on his grin again. There were
two or three questions I wanted to ask him when he was in his normal
condition, and I was just going to consult him about whether it
wouldn't be easier for the other girls and boys for me not to go to
school--anyway until they found Father and his innocence, or knew the
worst about the prosecution and other punishments that would be given
him; but before I could get the words arranged in my mind to say just
what I wanted to say, he began on something like the same subject
himself.
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