What did he (McSnagley) want to tell her she was wicked for?
What did he tell her that God hated her for?
If God hated her, what did she want to go to Sabbath school for?
SHE didn't want to be "beholden" to anybody who hated her.
Had she told McSnagley this?
Yes, she had.
The master laughed.

It was a hearty laugh, and echoed so oddly in the little schoolhouse, and seemed so inconsistent and discordant with the sighing of the pines without, that he shortly corrected himself with a sigh.

The sigh was quite as sincere in its way, however, and after a moment of serious silence he asked about her father.
Her father?
What father?
Whose father?
What had he ever done for her?
Why did the girls hate her?
Come now! what made the folks say, "Old Bummer Smith's Mliss!" when she passed?
Yes; oh yes.

She wished he was dead--she was dead--everybody was dead; and her sobs broke forth anew.
The master then, leaning over her, told her as well as he could what you or I might have said after hearing such unnatural theories from childish lips; only bearing in mind perhaps better than you or I the unnatural facts of her ragged dress, her bleeding feet, and the omnipresent shadow of her drunken father.

Then, raising her to her feet, he wrapped his shawl around her, and, bidding her come early in the morning, he walked with her down the road.