Even a pretty girl could not interest him very much just then, and Mary V, I must confess, was not looking as pretty as she sometimes looked.
"Well, Johnny Jewel!" said Mary V disapprovingly.

"_What_ have you there ?" "Well, Mary V! _What_ are you doing here ?" Johnny echoed promptly, choosing to ignore her question.
"What is that to you, may I ask ?" Mary V challenged him.
"What is the other to you, may I ask ?" Johnny retorted.
Deadlocked, they looked at each other and tried not to let their eyes smile.
"You're all over your cold, I see," said Mary V meaningly.

"You didn't come after all to ride with me last Sunday, although you promised to come." "Promised?
I did?
Well, what did you expect?
Not me--I'll bet on it." Johnny had been nearly caught, but he recovered himself in time, he believed.
"I expected you wouldn't know the first thing about it--which you didn't.
Oh, there's something here I want to show you." She tilted her head backward, and gave him a warning scowl, and rode slowly away.
Johnny followed, uncomfortably mystified.

She did not go more than fifty yards--just out of the hearing of the stranger.

She stopped and pointed her finger at a rock which was like any other rock in that locality.
"What is that fellow doing here?
He can't ride.