They were prouder and happier in their new acquirement than they would have been in the scalping and skinning of the Six Nations.
We will leave them to smoke and chatter and brag, since we have no further use for them at present.
CHAPTER XVII
BUT there was no hilarity in the little town that same tranquil Saturday afternoon.
The Harpers, and Aunt Polly's family, were being put into mourning, with great grief and many tears.
An unusual quiet possessed the village, although it was ordinarily quiet enough, in all conscience.
The villagers conducted their concerns with an absent air, and talked little; but they sighed often.
The Saturday holiday seemed a burden to the children.
They had no heart in their sports, and gradually gave them up.
In the afternoon Becky Thatcher found herself moping about the deserted schoolhouse yard, and feeling very melancholy. But she found nothing there to comfort her. She soliloquized: