"
"When I cry," said Katy tersely, "I cry because I feel like it.
I wasn't wapin' over the snake that'd plan a death like that for
anyone"--Katy waved toward the boulder--"and nayther was I
wastin' me tears over the fut of a kid bein' jommed up a trifle."
"Well, then, Katy," asked Linda tremulously, "why were you
crying?"
"Well, there's times," said Katy judicially, "when me spirits
tell me I would be the better for lettin' off a wee bit of stame,
and one of them times havin' arrived, I jist bowed me head to it,
as is in accordance with the makings of me. Far be it from me to
be flyin' in the face of Providence and sayin' I won't, when all
me interior disposhion says to me: 'Ye will!'"
"And now, Linda," said Peter, "can you tell us why you were
crying?"
"Why, I think," said Linda, "that Katy has explained sufficiently
for both of us. It was merely time for us to howl after such
fearful nerve strain, so we howled."
"Well, that's all right," said Peter. "Now I'll tell you
something. If you had gone away in that ambulance to an
anesthetic and an operation, no wildcat that ever indulged in a
hunger hunt through this canyon could have put up a howl equal to
the one that I would have sent up."
"Peter," said Linda, "there is nothing funny about this; it's no
tame for jest. But do men have nerves? Would you really?"
"Of course I would," said Peter.
"No, you wouldn't," contradicted Linda. "You just say that
because you want to comfort us for having broken down, instead of
trying to tease us as most men would.
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