They expected her to cry when they pushed her in the mud the other girls always cried, but she wasn't like other girls she was Ada Shelby.
Ada Shelby didn't cry over something as trivial as a bit of mud on her new dress and a cut knee no she gets up and smirks before punching the ring leader in the face.
She knees the boy who called her family scum in the balls, then whispers "When I tell my brothers what you called our family you are all fucking dead,". When they run away, she smiles sweetly and picks up her doll that's covered in mud an walks home.
When she gets home Aunt Polly isn't happy about the state of her dress and even less happy about the fact that anyone would dare lay a hand on her.
Aunt Polly smiles at her when she tells her how she punched one in the face and kneed one in the balls.
Aunt Polly had taught never let anyone push you around because once they started they would never stop.
Ada may have only been a seven year old girl, but she could fight just well as any boy and she didn't cry easily, she was a Shelby and no one pushed her around.