Page:Arthur Stringer-The Loom of Destiny.djvu/160

The Loom of Destiny don't know what a tuck shop means over here!"

"Oh, you kids make me tired," said Freckles. "But I know one thing. If I was going travelling, I would n't go to a country that had licked mine so often."

Georgie was silent. It was always several hours too late when he thought of the right answer.

"Freckles, you're telling your lies again." That was the way Mary Edith wriggled out of answering such questions.

"All right, if you think they're lies, go and ask Aunt Mary. We licked you in the Revolution,—licked you just horrid,—and we did the same in 1812. There was Perry's battle on Lake Erie, and there was the 'Hornet,' and the 'Kearsarge,' and the 'Chesapeake,' and the 'Argus,' and the—the—Oh, shoot, why, there were so many times we did it I can't remember them all. But if you don't believe me, just go and ask Aunt Mary."

"I intend to ask Aunt Mary," said Mary Edith, tearfully, "but I'll tell you right now, 148