“What I done? You agreed to it, and you helped me write the letters!” Susie argued. She was a year younger than Sally, but at times it felt as though she was the one who should be older. “Besides, it was your idea in the first place!” she whispered. “Maybe so, but I’ve had second thoughts about it bein’ a good idea.” Those second thoughts had something to do with their Papa telling them at the supper table that night that he didn’t want either of them acting like Melissa Cummins. Melissa fibbed to her Pa about breaking her Ma’s necklace, and her brother got blamed and taken to the woodshed for a strapping. Their Papa said that Melissa needed to make acquaintance with a switch or two, and Sally started feeling guilty, “It’s too late to have second thoughts, Sally. Somehow we got to get Pa cleaned up and into town before the stage comes in tomorrow morning.” “You girls quiet down up there!” Seth Masterson called up to the loft. He listened carefully for the next couple of minutes before turning his attention to his book. The girls were up to something, and if he was a betting man, he’d place a wager that the two of them were in for a good spanking fairly soon. He’d witnessed the guilty look that passed between them when he was telling them about Melissa Cummins’ latest mischief. He would rather raise his two girls than put up with that child for one week! She was a never-ending source of grief to her Pa, and his two little girls were sweet as could be… most of the time. Still, they were in some sort of trouble, and he figured he’d find about it soon enough. Seth read for a few more minutes and once he was satisfied the girls were asleep for the night, he put the bar over the door to keep out unwelcome visitors, and then turn the lamp down low and went to bed.
