Page:Cornelia Meigs-The Pirate of Jasper Peak.djvu/49

 eyes; they were blue, a pale unlovely blue that looked terrifyingly strange, set in his dark face.

“Hello, friends,” the stranger continued genially. “I thought I would look in and get my mail before I was off down-State to sell my furs. I’ve got a fine lot this year, the best that’s come out of Canada for a long while.”

There was no answer, unless one could call little Eva Stromberg’s frightened squeak a reply,  or the uneasy shifting of old Nels Larson’s big  feet.

“Would you like to see what I’ve got?” the man went on, seemingly quite untroubled by the lack  of friendliness. “You won’t see anything so fine again for quite a month of Sundays, nor anything  that’s worth so much money, you poor penny-pinchers. Come here, sis,” he added to one of the smaller children; “you would like to see my  furs, now, wouldn’t you?”

The little girl, afraid to disobey, advanced with something of the air of a charmed bird, and came  trembling to his side. He opened the big pack and spread out its contents on the floor.