Captain Elisha was first to notice the latter peculiarity.
"Say, Jim!" he interrupted, one afternoon, "what was that you just read
about Mary? Her hat blowin' off to leeward and her brown hair blowin'
after it? Or somethin' of that sort?"
Caroline laughed merrily. The author turned to the passage mentioned.
"Not exactly, Captain," he replied, smiling. "I said her hat had blown
away, and her brown curls tossed in the wind. What's wrong with that?
Hats do blow away in a sou'wester; I've seen them."
"Perhaps he thinks she should have been more careful in pinning it on,"
suggested the feminine member of the advisory board.
Captain Elisha shook his head. "No," he observed calmly, "but why was
she wearin' that kind of hair? She's pretty young to use a switch, ain't
she?"
"Switch?" repeated "Mary's" creator, with some indignation. "What are
you talking about? When I first described her, I said that her hair was
luxuriant and one of her chief beauties."
"That's a fact! So you did. What made her dye it?"
"Dye it? What do you think she is--a chorus girl?"
"If I remember right she's a postmaster's daughter. But why is she
wearin' brown hair, if it ain't neither false or dyed? Back in the third
chapter 'twas BLACK, like her eyes.
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