So he was shown into the bedroom, and when he was undressed and clothed in one of Gil Steele's long white night-shirts, Mrs.Steele returned and took his clothes away to brush them! Whitey's cup of bitterness was full.

This was a fine position for a hero to be in.

He tried the sour-grapes idea: perhaps Injun hadn't learned anything that amounted to anything, after all.

But that didn't work.
There were no two ways about it, he was an abused being.

By golly, this was worse than school! But after working hard all day in the hot sun, even an abused being will get sleepy.