Page:Good Sports (1919).djvu/151

142 He grinned broad, and jumped down off his perch. "There's a core to that," she says to him as she passed him one of her pretty works of art. "Chew it fine." Then with a slow wink to the others, "That'll shut up his noise for a spell," she said.

I don't know as I can make you see, that as rough as Isabel's humor was, and no too much knowledge of the English language, and not pretty, as girls go, there was a real attractiveness about her. It made one think of the attractiveness of certain flowers—wild, hardy ones, like Golden-rod, or Tansy—and she gave you the impression that she was able to take care of herself, like those kind of flowers, too.

One of the fellows slid his arm around her while I was watchin'.

She let it stay there a little while. Then, "Look it here, Cheeky," she says to him, as if she'd been used to men like him all her life, "it's doughnuts I'm servin' this afternoon."

He just gave her a squeeze at that, and left his arm right where 'twas.

She went on fryin' for a while, not mindin' 'parently. Then very quiet and off-hand she picks up a spoon off a shelf beside her, and, smart 's you please, drops a bit of hot fat on the soldier's hand. He let go then all right, and you