"Why, she says the most ridiculous things
about--about Miss Bostwick!" He bowed and blushed as he spoke the
name and looked penitently toward Sheila. "Why, she declares _her_
name is Bostwick!"
"That's what she done up here," said Cap'n Ira grimly. "I cal'late
she means to kick up a fuss. Is she still stopping with your mother,
Zeb?"
"Yes. She paid a week's board money down. I expect mom wouldn't have
taken her, or it, if Tunis hadn't brought her."
"That wasn't Tunis' fault," snapped the old man. "He had to get
shet of her somehow. We expect she'll try to make trouble."
"Oh, as for that," said Zeb, with some relief, "I don't see, even if
she is your niece, why she should expect you to take her in if you
don't want to!"
"She ain't," said Cap'n Ira flatly. "You can take that from me,
Zeb."
"Not any relation at all?"
"None at all, as far as we know," declared the captain.
"Then what does she want to talk the way she does, for?" cried the
young man. "I told mom she was crazy, and now I know she is."
"I guess likely," agreed the old man, taking upon himself the burden
of the explanation. "None of us up here ever saw the gal before.
Neither Prudence nor me nor Ida May.
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