Page:Son of the wind.djvu/124

RV 112 "I feel very frivolous this morning," she explained. "There is nothing really to laugh at. It is only that mother thought I ought not to run off for a whole half day, and leave everything on her shoulders."

Carron understood that this did not fully account for Mrs. Rader's expression, but if the girl wanted to offer it as an explanation he could take it as such. "She expects you to have some time off, doesn't she?" he asked.

"Oh, yes, and of course I do." She was silent for a moment, manœuvering the chestnut between the white gate-posts—"but now, when we are so busy with the house, it is hard. We have to do everything ourselves. There is only George to help, and when I am away he doesn't help so very well."

"Doesn't understand much of anything that is said to him, does he?" Carron asked.

"Oh, yes, he understands a great deal, a great deal more than any one supposes. But if he doesn't want to do a thing he seems not to know anything; or else he hides. He has a little burrow down below the barn, and he goes into it like a rabbit. Lots of times I've pulled him out of it. He's very sharp." She bent her head broodingly, and light and shadow fluttered in an unending procession of curious little shapes across her face. "It's hard to tell sometimes