Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/252

224 Rob instantly turned to offer a meek apology, but it had no effect on the irate woman, who  grasped her bonnet firmly with both hands, as  she exclaimed,—

“Needn’t knock a body’s head off! Folks shouldn’t take boys on the keers till they know  how to behave!”

“I am very sorry, ma’am,” ventured Rob again.

“So you’d ought to be!” was the snappish rejoinder. “I hope you are ashamed of yourself to go hitting a woman old enough to be your mother with your nuisancing contraptions!” Then, with a backward glance, she added, as if to herself, “That other one looks more as if he’d behave himself somehow. I guess I’ll move round and set behind him.”

And she gathered up her belongings and moved back, where the worthy soul lent an  attentive ear to all their conversation, and watched Fred with curious eyes, while from time to time she scowled disapprovingly on  Rob, who was quite subdued by his misadventure.

Of course, Rob wished to take a lunch before