CHAPTER IXJust to look at him was enough to cheer a man up a good deal. For instance, have you ever seen a blue jay fluttering around through the trees? You know that the murderer and thief and gossip is going around hunting for trouble and ready to talk even where they ain’t anything to make talk about, but still, there is something so bright about a jay when the sun hits him, and he looks so sassy and so happy that you can’t help smiling.
It was that way with Pepillo. He was a mischief-maker, and there wasn’t any doubt about that, but you couldn’t help smiling in spite of the damage that he might be doing. Right then, I couldn’t tell whether he was laughing with me or at me, but it didn’t make a whole lot of difference.
I should tell you how he had fixed himself up in the store. He had
