As to reprisals, with a strong boy of fourteen, grown very nearly to a man's height, Hannah found herself a good deal at a loss.

'Bully-raggin' he took no more account of than of a shower of rain; blows she instinctively felt it would have been dangerous to attempt; and as to deprivation of food, the lad seemed to thrive on hunger, and never whistled so loudly as when, according to Hannah's calculations, he must have been as 'keen-bitten as a hawk.' For the first time in her life Hannah was to some extent tamed.

When there was business about she generally felt it expedient to let Louie alone.
But this sturdy protection was more really a matter of roused pride and irritation on David's part than of brotherly love.

It was the tragedy of Louie Grieve's fate--whether as child or woman--that she was not made to be loved.

Whether _she_ could love, her story will show; but to love her when you were close to her was always hard.