Part 45 (1/2)
”I'm not cross,” contradicted Van, looking up at him with a very red face.
”Yes, you are, just as cross as a snapping-turtle,” said Percy, trying to think of the worst thing he had encountered, and quite pleased as he saw its effect on Van.
”You shall just take that back, Percy Whitney,” declared Van, hopping out of his chair, and doubling up his small fists. ”I'm not a snapping-turtle.”
Percy edged off, with a sharp lookout for the fists.
”I didn't say so.”
”Yes, you did,” said Van crossly; ”you said just that very thing, Percy Whitney, and I'm not a snapping-turtle.”
”I said you were as cross as one,” said Percy, wis.h.i.+ng he hadn't been quite as free with his comparisons, and moving off to a convenient corner.
”Well, that's just the same,” said Van, advancing, ”and Polly----”
[Transcriber's note: This page in our print copy was obscured by an ink blot. The words in brackets are those that we have supplied based on context and those letters that were visible.]
At the mention of Polly, Percy stopped suddenly, drew a long breath, and never thought of the [corner] again.
”[Why,] we promised her,” he gasped; ”I forgot all about it.”
Down [went Van's] little fist.
”So we [did],” [he] said gloomily, and both boys crept off [together to]
the same corner Percy had selected for [himself].
”Whatever shall [we] do [now]?” breathed Percy, quite lost in his dismal reflections.
”We stopped,” said Van, as something to be offered with a grain of hope.
”But we did a lot before we stopped,” said Percy. A deep gloom had settled over his countenance, and he wouldn't look at Van. ”Oh, dear me!”
Van fidgeted about for a minute,
”Well, I don't know,” he said, twisting his hands. ”Oh, dear me! Why, you might say I'm not a snapping-turtle,” he cried cheerfully at last, and fairly hugging Percy in his delight.
”So I might,” said Percy, well pleased, ”but I didn't say you _were_ a snapping-turtle; I said you were as cross as a snapping-turtle.”
”Well, you might say I'm not as cross as a snapping-turtle, then,” said Van, determined to fix it some way.
So Percy said it, and then the two brothers plunged out of doors without a thought of the formalities of any plan. But it was Van who furnished it after all.
”Let's go down and see [Candace],” he said.
”Oh, yes, let's,” cried Percy, [then] he stopped short and began to laugh.
”What's the matter?” Van twitched his sleeve.
”Nothing,” said Percy, so relieved he hadn't said what was on the tip of his tongue; ”you've done it after all and told something for us to do.”