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Show 107 She couldn't keep up with school, but was promoted along with the rest of us as a matter of policy, and nobody treated her as if there was anything different about her. Except Leonard, that is. One day I came out of school and found Leonard leading the other boys in an attack on her. She was backed into the corner of Sister Gay's tall picket fence and they were throwing rocks at her, not hitting her, but scaring the poor little thing out of what wits she had. Somehow I got over the fence and faced them. "If you want to hit somebody, hit me, " I defied them, and they melted away like trout in a stream. Rozina felt I was her friend from then on, and I was called on to protect her from other cruelties, notably one by the girls. Ada Farnsworth, a pretty girl from Salt Lake, had come to stay with her grandmother. She felt superior because she was a city girl, and proceeded to whack up our crowd of fifteen, set groups against each other, and manage us to suit her will. Rozina's mother, thinking to make friends for her poor little girl, invited us all there to a candy-pulling. I practically forced the rest of the girls to go, and we did make candy: sticky taffy, and grainy fudge. Mrs. Harmon left us the run of the house, hoping to cement friendships, but it had the opposite effect. "Let's go barefooted, " suggested Ada, with evil intent. "I don't want to, " said Rozina, but Ada was insistent. I was too guileless to sense the reason; Rozina was smarter. |
