verything I asked her she said, 'I won't tell.' She is very, very
stubborn; she was always so."

"Because, anyway," Pee-wee said, alluding to his former query, "if
anybody says she burned down the bridge on purpose it's a lie. I don't
care who says it, it's a lie. She's--she's my partner--and it's a lie.
If--even--if the minister says it, it's a lie!"

"Listen, my dear boy," said his aunt kindly. "I'm not angry with Pepsy,
poor child. I'm not accusing her, and you mustn't talk about the Rev.
Mr. Gloomer telling lies. Pepsy tried to burn down the orphan home once,
for some trifling grievance. We can't take the responsibility of the
poor child any longer. I'm afraid that any minute Beriah Bungel will
want to take her--arrest her. I know she's your partner, dear, but it
would be better for us to send her back to the state home where she will
probably be kept than to let her be arrested. I don't think she knew
what she was doing, poor, poor child--"

Aunt Jamsiah broke down completely, crying in her handkerchief. So Uncle
Eb finished what little there was to say.

"We had to send fer 'em, Walter," said he. "She'll be better off there
fer a spell, I reckon. I ain't so sure about her doin' it, though it
looks bad. Least ways, she didn't know what she was doing. But don't you
worry--"

Pee-wee did not wait to hear more. He just could not stand there.

"When--when are they--coming?" he asked. "I reckon to--morrow, boy. Now,
you look here--."

But Pee-wee had gone.

Up the narrow, boxed-in stairs he went, never asking permission. He
could see nothing but a big enclosed wagon, dark inside, with Pepsy
inside it. He had no more idea what he was going to do that day than the
man in the moon. But he knew what he was going to do that very minute.
When a scout makes up his mind to do a thing. ...

Into the little room under the eaves he strode, his eyes glistening, but
his heart staunch and his resolve indomitable. And she smiled when
she saw him. She was sitting up and she looked ever so little in her
nightclothes and ever so plain with her tightly braided red hair. But
her eyes were clear and she smiled when she looked at him. ...

"I won't tell anybody where I went," she said, "because I was a smarty
and I thought I could make somebody do a good turn ever so--ever so big.
And they'd only laugh at me if I told them what it was. So I'm not going
to be a tell-tale cat."

"Pep," he said, "it shows that you're right because