"Oh, poor tree! Do you suppose it hurt very much! And the half stands up as if nothing could ever make it afraid. There are the branches all withering on the ground. Were you very much frightened? It kills people sometimes, doesn't it?"
"Very seldom. And a great many things kill them. Accidents and falls, and sickness, so the few struck by lightning are hardly to be taken into account."
"Oh, look at the great field of corn! It is like a sea."
The tassels had turned yellow, and the wind stirred them, making golden waves.
"What do you know about the sea?"
"Why, when we went down the Potomac. You were not home."
"I've been down there though, and out on the ocean."
"Would you be afraid to go to England?"
"Not of the ocean, but I might be of the privateers. And I should not want to be caught and impressed, and made to fight. But I mustn't fill my little lady-love with frightful subjects."
The child's cheek warmed with a dainty color. Could anyone be a lady-love to two persons? That was what Charles called her.