"Snippy seems quite busy in these days providing for his family; I think, too, he is rather jealous of Jim."
"There are some such cunning little squirrels, but Snippy keeps them closely at home, down in the hollow of the tree."
"If you would like to walk about a little—the rains have given us quite a picturesque aspect, and the weather has brought us into spring."
"Will Miss Laverne be my guide?"
"That sounds just like school. When you get in the highest class, where your cousin Isabel is, you are called Miss—whatever your last name happens to be. I don't like it so well."
"But you will when you get to be a young lady."
"I like girls the best," she said simply.
He thought they would be quite charming if they all resembled her.
They took the winding path up to the spring, if it were that; Pablo, under Uncle Jason's direction, had made quite a basin of it. Then it trickled down to the next level, and this was Balder's pool. It was arranged so that it irrigated quite a little garden. There were some orange trees, but they had been nipped by the frosts.
"They are rather bitter and sour and full of seeds," said Laverne, "only they are beautiful with their glossy leaves, and the blossoms are sweet. Everything is wonderful here."