She was not like her fellow townspeople, for that they were
strangers recommended them to her.
The moment her door was shut the other doors began to open, and
soon there appeared little groups here and there about a threshold,
while a few of the more courageous ventured out upon the square -
all ready to make for their houses again, however, upon the least
sign of movement in the little thatched one.
The baker and the barber had joined one of these groups, and were
busily wagging their tongues against Curdie and his horrible beast.
'He can't be honest,' said the barber; 'for he paid me double the
worth of the pane he broke in my window.'
And then he told them how Curdie broke his window by breaking a
stone in the street with his hammer. There the baker struck in.
'Now that was the stone,' said he, 'over which I had fallen three
times within the last month: could it be by fair means he broke
that to pieces at the first blow? Just to make up my mind on that
point I tried his own hammer against a stone in the gate; it nearly
broke both my arms, and loosened half the teeth in my head!'
CHAPTER 15
Derba and Barbara
Meantime the wanderers were hospitably entertained by the old woman
and her grandchild and they were all very comfortable and happy
together. Little Barbara sat upon Curdie's knee, and he told her
stories about the mines and his adventures in them.
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