So Jake locked her in the woodshed, and said that he was going
to keep her there till Maw Hoover came home. She'd gone to town."
"Why did he want to do that?"
"Because Maw had said that if she ever caught Zara around, their place
again she was going to take a stick to her and beat her until she was
black and blue--and I guess she meant it, too. She liked to give people
beatings--me, I mean. She never touched Jake, though, and she never
believed he did anything wrong."
Dolly whistled.
"If she knew him the way I do, she would," she said. "And I've only seen
him twice--but that's two times too many!"
"Well, after he'd locked her in, Jake went off, and I tried to let her
out. I couldn't find the key, and I was trying to break the lock on the
door with a stone. I'd nearly got it done, when Jake came along and
found me doing it. So he stood off and threw bits of burning wood from
the fire near me, to frighten me. That was an old trick of his.
"But that time the woodshed caught fire, and he was scared.
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