He got long straws, too, and tickled the backs, of the girls' necks; or he dumped handfuls of bran down their backs, or shook oats into their hair--and the oats stuck.
Mr. Bronson could not see to everything; and Pete was very sly at his tricks. A girl would shriek in one corner, and the lout would quickly transport himself to a distant spot.
When the corn was swept aside, and the floor cleared for the dance, Pete went beyond the limit, however. He had found a pail of soft-soap in the shed and while the crowd was out of the barn, playing a “round game” in the yard while it was being swept, Pete slunk in with the soap and a swab, and managed to spread a good deal of the slippery stuff around on the boards.
A broom would not remove this soft-soap. When the hostler swept, he only spread it. And when the dancing began many a couple measured their length on the planks, to Pete's great delight.
But the hired man had observed Pete sneaking about while he was removing the last of the corn, and Hiram Strong discovered soft-soap on Pete's clothes, and the smell of it strong upon his unwashed hands.
“You get out of here,” Mr. Bronson told the boy. “I had occasion to put you off my land once, and don't let me have to do it a third time,” and he shoved him with no gentle hand through the door and down the driveway.
But Pete laid it all to Hiram. He called back over his shoulder:
“I'll be square with you, yet, Hi Strong! You wait!”
But Hiram bad been threatened so often from that quarter by now, that he was not much interested.
The fun went on after that with more moderation, and everybody had a pleasant time. That is, so supposed Hiram Strong until, in going out of the barn again to get a breath of cool air after one of the dances, he almost stumbled over a figure hiding in a corner, and crying.
“Why, Sister!” he cried, taking the girl by the shoulders, and turning her about. “What's the matter?”
“Oh, I want to go home, Hi. This isn't any place for me. Let me--me run--run home!” she sobbed.
“I guess not! Who's bothered you? Has that Pete Dickerson come back?”
“They--they don't want me here. They don't like me.”
“Those--those girls from St. Beris. I--I tried to dance, and I slipped on some of that horrid soap and--and fell down. And they said I was clumsy. And one said: