Page:Mistress Madcap Surrenders (1926).pdf/254



ORSOOTH, nothing nice ever happens at our place any more!" complained Mehitable fretfully, pushing forward her sunbonnet to shade her eyes as she peered down through the blinding sunshine at Charity.

The younger girl, squatting back upon her heels and shaded by the tall corn stalks growing all about her, looked up with a smile.

"What d'ye want to happen?" she asked lazily.

"Oh, anything, Cherry!" Mehitable's tone was impatient. "Isn't that stuff almost ready to pour? Suz, it be hot out here in this field!"

Charity bent over the melting lead which, in a pot suspended from three iron rods, was being made ready for the bullet molds. She was trying to smother and spread the smoke from the fire and, of the two girls, had the most right to be short-tempered, for her task was not a pleasant one. As soon as she attempted to direct the smoke, the fire smoldered angrily and threatened to go out. Yet she did not dare to let its telltale signal rise from