The Tender Years by Janette Oke Page B

was busy with other plans. Constantly Virginia found herself being pushed in awkward corners and uncomfortable situations. The little crowd of malcontents was going across to the pasture of Mr. Moss to tease his big red bull. They set a trap for Crow Man Marshall’s pet, just to hear him squawk a bit, laughing over who would squawk the loudest—the bird or the man. Virginia had managed to bow out of these escapades with valid excuses. But it was not so easy to say no when Jenny decided they were going to the town’s hardware store to pester old Mr. Lougin. Virginia was told that the man firmly believed all school kids were thieves and that he nearly put his neck out trying to watch them all at the same time whenever they entered his store without the supervision of a parent.
    “He thinks anyone under twenty should be kept on a leash,” Freddie Crell sputtered, and ever yone in the group laughed as though it was a great joke.
    “Maybe in a cage,” hooted one of the other boys.
    “It drives him half mad,” Jenny said with great glee, “just for us to mill about a little and pretend to look at this or that. He breaks out in a sweat and his face gets red. It’s great sport.”
    The shouts of laughter seemed out of proportion with the statement, to Virginia’s way of thinking.
    She had known Mr. Lougin all of her life and had never seen him agitated in such a fashion. But then Virginia had never been in his store except with a parent or on a legitimate errand for a parent.
    “What do we do?” she asked, her voice giving away a bit of her concern.
    Jenny laughed her giggling, near-hysteria laugh. “That’s just it,” she finally choked out. “We don’t have to do anything .” She managed to get control of her tongue so she could talk properly and went on, her green eyes dancing with the fun of it all. “We just walk in and scatter. Just scatter. ” She indicated this with a flutter of two small freckled hands. “We scatter and just walk around and look—and he turns into a loony. It’s hilarious. He rushes about, here and there, counting items on the counters where we’ve just been, watching this way, then that—his big ole eyes nearly poppin’ from his head. It’s hilarious .”
    It sounded mean to Virginia.
    “My folks would whup me if they ever caught me at it,” muttered Jedd Marlow, who had somehow been tricked into joining the group. Virginia supposed it had something to do with the fact that Ruthie, who was included on some of the escapades, thought Jedd was cute. “I’m not to go in a store unless I got proper business there,” explained the boy.
    Virginia was just about to open her mouth to agree with Jedd. Her folks would not take kindly to the idea, either, even though they might think of something other than a whipping to express their displeasure. But before she could even get out a word of agreement she saw Jenny whirl around and give Jedd one of her looks.
    “We aren’t doing any harm to nobody. If this wasn’t such a dead town—if the grown-ups were concerned enough to give us something interesting to do with our time—we wouldn’t need to look for our own way of making fun, now would we?”
    It was funny with Jenny. She could make her arguments for almost anything sound so reasonable. And convincing. Virginia found herself agreeing with the words. It was a dull town. The grown-ups didn’t do much, or supply much, to entertain the young. Maybe it was their fault that young folks had to hatch up ways to fill their free hours.
    But Jedd held his ground. He did not even flinch under Jenny’s wrathful glare. He shrugged shoulders that were quickly broadening out in their reach for manhood. “Do what you like,” he said matter-of-factly. “Me—I don’t need to be looking for something to do. Got plenty of chores waiting for me at home. And when I finish them, I’m gonna meet up with some of the fellas for a game of ball.”
    Jenny’s glare became more intense. But she was