This was Daisy . She could not explain why she trusted him against all appearances , she only felt that she could not doubt him , and her warm sympathy made her strong to take his part . She would not hear a word against him from any one , and actually slapped her beloved Demi when he tried to convince her that it must have been Nat , because no one else knew where the money was . `` Maybe the hens ate it ; they are greedy old things , '' she said ; and when Demi laughed , she lost her temper , slapped the amazed boy , and then burst out crying and ran away , still declaring , `` He did n't ! he did n't ! he did n't ! '' Neither aunt nor uncle tried to shake the child 's faith in her friend , but only hoped her innocent instinct might prove sure , and loved her all the better for it . Nat often said , after it was over , that he could n't have stood it , if it had not been for Daisy . When the others shunned him , she clung to him closer than ever , and turned her back on the rest . She did not sit on the stairs now when he solaced himself with the old fiddle , but went in and sat beside him , listening with a face so full of confidence and affection , that Nat forgot disgrace for a time , and was happy . She asked him to help her with her lessons , she cooked him marvelous messes in her kitchen , which he ate manfully , no matter what they were , for gratitude gave a sweet flavor to the most distasteful . She proposed impossible games of cricket and ball , when she found that he shrank from joining the other boys . She put little nosegays from her garden on his desk , and tried in every way to show that she was not a fair-weather friend , but faithful through evil as well as good repute . Nan soon followed her example , in kindness at least ; curbed her sharp tongue , and kept her scornful little nose from any demonstration of doubt or dislike , which was good of Madame Giddy-gaddy , for she firmly believed that Nat took the money . Most of the boys let him severely alone , but Dan , though he said he despised him for being a coward , watched over him with a grim sort of protection , and promptly cuffed any lad who dared to molest his mate or make him afraid . His idea of friendship was as high as Daisy 's , and , in his own rough way , he lived up to it as loyally . Sitting by the brook one afternoon , absorbed in the study of the domestic habits of water-spiders , he overheard a bit of conversation on the other side of the wall . Ned , who was intensely inquisitive , had been on tenterhooks to know certainly who was the culprit ; for of late one or two of the boys had begun to think that they were wrong , Nat was so steadfast in his denials , and so meek in his endurance of their neglect . This doubt had teased Ned past bearing , and he had several times privately beset Nat with questions , regardless of Mr. Bhaer 's express command . Finding Nat reading alone on the shady side of the wall , Ned could not resist stopping for a nibble at the forbidden subject .
He had worried Nat for some ten minutes before Dan arrived , and the first words the spider-student heard were these , in Nat 's patient , pleading voice , `` Do n't , XXXXX !
Bhaer Daisy Dan Giddy-gaddy Nan Ned afternoon nosegays tenterhooks water-spiders