Danger in the Air

Linna shook her head quickly several times, but her lips remained
mute.

"Your father thought he knew how, but he don't; he doesn't play fair,
either. Let me show you, so you can beat him when you go home."

Alice set to work, while the bright black eyes watched every
movement.

"Now do you want to try it?" she asked, after going through the
game several times.

Linna nodded her head with the same birdlike quickness, and reached
out her chubby hand.

Her father and Alice watched her closely. She made several failures
at first, all of which were patiently explained by her tutor; by and
by she went through the performance from beginning to end without
a break.

Alice clapped her hands with delight, and Omas--certain that no
grownup person saw him--smiled with pleasure.

"Doesn't she know how to talk?" asked Alice, looking up at the
warrior. Omas spoke somewhat sharply to his child in the Delaware
tongue. She startled, and looking at Alice, asked-"Do--yoo think me play well?"

Alice was delighted to find she could make herself understood so
easily. It was wonderful how she had learned to speak English so
early in life.

"I guess you can," was the ready reply of Alice; "your father can't
begin to play as well. When you go home you can show your mamma
how to play Jack Stones. Have you any brothers and sisters?"