) They
had to respect a man who could do all the things in the gymnasium that
they couldn't, and come in from a ten or fifteen-mile tramp through the
snow and take a cold plunge and a swim to rest himself.
It was on Monday that we really got things started, and on Monday
afternoon Miss Summers came out to the shelter-house in a towering rage.
"Where's Mr. Pierce?" she demanded.
"I guess you can see he isn't here," I said.
"Just wait until I see him!" she announced. "Do you know that I am down
on the blackboard for the military walk to-day?
"Why not?"
She turned and glared at me. "Why not?" she repeated. "Why, the audacity
of the wretch! He brings me out into the country in winter to play in
his atrocious play, strands me, and then tells me to walk twenty miles a
day and smile over it!" She came over to me and shook my arm. "Not only
that," she said, "but he has cut out my cigarettes and put Arabella on
dog biscuit--Arabella, who can hardly eat a chicken wing."
"Well, there's something to be thankful for," I said. "He didn't put you
on dog biscuit."
She laughed then, with one of her quick changes of humor.
"The worst of it is," she said, in a confidential whisper, "I'll do it.
I feel it. I guess if the truth were known I'm some older than he is,
but--I'm afraid of him, Minnie. Little Judy is ready to crawl around and
speak for a cracker or a kind word. Oh, I'm not in love with him, but
he's got the courage to say what he means and do what he says.
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