Phrony was quite scornful about it, but a little perky as well.
"If a boy was such a fool as to go up a tree when he had been told it wouldn't hold him, she could not help it.

She did not want the eggs, anyhow," she said disdainfully.

This was all the reward that little Dave got for his devotion and courage.
That afternoon Keith went over the Ridge to see Dave.
The Dennison home was a small farm-house back of the Ridge, in what was known as a "cove," an opening in the angle between the mountains, where was a piece of level or partly level ground on the banks of one of the little mountain creeks.

When Keith arrived he found Mrs.Dennison, a small, angular woman with sharp eyes, a thin nose, and thin lips, very stiff and suspicious.

She had never forgiven Keith for his victory over her boys, and she looked now as if she would gladly have set the dogs on him instead of calling them off as she did when he strode up the path and the yelping pack dashed out at him.
She "didn' know how Dave was," she said glumly.