Page:Ruth Fielding at Lighthouse Point.djvu/97

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THE STORY OF THE CASTAWAY
87

flushed, "if you girls are going to nag me, and bother me about who I am, and where I come from, and what my name is—though Nita's a good enough name for anybody——"

"Anybody but Jib Pottoway," chuckled Heavy.

"Well! and he warn't so bad, if he was half Injun," snapped the runaway. "Well, anyway, if you don't leave me alone I'll get out of bed right now and walk out of here. I guess you haven't any hold on me."

"Better wait till your clothes are dry," suggested Madge.

"Aunt Kate would never let you go," said Heavy.

"I'll go to-morrow morning, then!" cried the runaway.

"Why, we don't mean to nag you," interposed Ruth, soothingly. "But of course we're curious—and interested."

"You're like all the other Eastern folk I've met," declared Nita. "And I don't like you much. I thought you were different."

"You've been expecting some rich man to adopt you, and dress you in lovely clothes, and all that, eh?" said Mercy Curtis.

"Well! I guess there are not so many millionaires in the East as they said there was," grumbled Nita.

"Or else they've already got girls of their own