Wherefore Casey was appreciably handicapped in his work, and he wished that he were away out in the hills digging into the side of a gulch somewhere, sun-blistered, broke, more than half starving on short rations and with rheumatism in his right shoulder and a bunion giving him a limp in the left foot.

He could still be happy-- "_What_ yuh doin' that for ?" the shrillest voice repeated three times rapidly, with a sniffle now and then by way of punctuation.
"To make little girls ask questions," grunted Casey, glancing around him for the snub-nosed, double-headed, four-pound hammer which he called affectionately by the name Maud.

The biggest girl had Maud.

She had turned it upright on its handle and was sitting on the head of it.

When Casey reached for it and got it, without apology or warning, the girl sprawled backward and howled.
"Porshea, you git up from there! _Shame_ on yuh!" A shrill woman voice, very much like the younger voices except that it was worn rough and querulous with age and many hardships, called down from the truck.