She must have been about ten at that time, since Carl was eight. She was a very dressy and complacent child, possessed not only of a clean white muslin with three rows of tucks, immaculate bronze boots, and a green tam-o'-shanter, but also of a large hair-ribbon, a ribbon sash, and a silver chain with a large, gold-washed, heart-shaped locket. She was softly plump, softly gentle of face, softly brown of hair, and softly pleasant of speech. "Hello!" said she. "H'lo!" "What's your name, little boy?" "Ain't a little boy. I'm Carl Ericson." "Oh, are you? I'm----" "I'm gonna have a shotgun when I'm fifteen." He shyly hurled a stone at a telegraph-pole to prove that he was not shy. "My name is Gertie Cowles. I came from Minneapolis. My mamma owns part of the Joralemon Flour Mill.... Are you a nice boy? We just moved here and I don't know anybody. Maybe my mamma will let me play with you if you are a nice boy." "I jus' soon come play with you. If you play soldiers.... My pa 's the smartest man in Joralemon. He builded Alex Johnson's house. He's got a ten-gauge gun." "Oh.... My mamma 's a widow." Carl hung by his arms from the gate-pickets while she breathed, "M-m-m-m-m-m-y!" in admiration at the feat. "That ain't nothing. I can hang by my knees on a trapeze.... What did you come from Minneapolis for?" "We're going to live here," she said. "Oh." "I went to the Chicago World's Fair with my mamma this summer." "Aw, you didn't!" "I did so. And I saw a teeny engine so small it was in a walnut-shell and you had to look at it through a magnifying-glass and it kept on running like anything." "Huh! that's nothing! Ben Rusk, he went to the World's Fair, too, and he saw a statchue that was bigger 'n our house and all pure gold. You didn't see that." "I did so! And we got cousins in Chicago and we stayed with them, and Cousin Edgar is a very _prominent_ doctor for eyenear and stummick." "Aw, Ben Rusk's pa is a doctor, too. And he's got a brother what's going to be a sturgeon." "I got a brother. He's a year older than me. His name is Ray.... There's lots more people in Minneapolis than there is in Joralemon. There's a hundred thousand people in Minneapolis." "That ain't nothing. My pa was born in Christiania, in the Old Country, and they's a million million people there." "Oh, there is not!" "Honest there is." "Is there, honest?" Gertie was admiring now. He looked patronizingly at the red-plush furniture which was being splendidly carried into the great house from Jordan's dray--an old friend of Carl's, which had often carried him banging through town. He condescended: "Jiminy! You don't know Bennie Rusk nor nobody, do you! I'll bring him and we can play soldiers. And we can make tents out of carpets. Did you ever run through carpets on the line?" He pointed to the row of rugs and carpets airing beside the carriage-shed. "No. Is it fun?" "It's awful scary. But I ain't afraid."