Page:Ritchie - Trails to Two Moons.djvu/90

 a spidery little clerk made haste to display. A near-by counter was a welter of bolts of gingham, of boxes uncovered to display intimate treasures, knots of cerise and cherry-colored ribbon. The sheep queen, with a frank and free movement lifted one hem of her calico skirt and plunged a huge hand into a concealed pocket of her overalls. She brought out from the depths a length of string knotted at several places.

"An' now corsets, young man," she commanded grandly. "Phenie, lift up your arms an' let me see how you measure up with my Cathay, which she 's developed remarkable since I bought her that last pair."

The surprised Phenie demurred at so unconventional a comparison. But Woolly Annie simply went ahead with her domestic surveying, reassuring the girl in a hoarse whisper that could have been heard out on Main Street that "nobody should mind a poor little water spider like him." The clerk's fanlike ears registered mortification even while he discreetly turned his back in pretense of searching the shelves.

"Just what I told Cathay!" came the booming triumph from the lips of the sheep queen.