[182] "Not by yerself?"
"No, Dorothy and Cousin Ben came with me."
"Hear to that now. And didn't ye see the mother nor none of thim that's gone to meet ye?"
"Why, no! When did they go to meet us?"
"This morning. Sure it was your mother that said, 'Thim children will be gettin' in fair and airly and I'll just be goin' in to Misther Ramsey's office and meet thim when they git there and bring thim right along with me.' Thin Miss Ceely speaks up and says, 'I'll be goin,' too.'"
"But we didn't go to Mr. Ramsey's office. We left him in New York and Cousin Ben Barker brought us on from there."
"Did ye ever hear the likes of that now? She'll be as disappinted as yerself when she gets there and doesn't find ye."
"Where are the boys?"
"They're off too. When they learns that their mother was going to town they says we'll go to one of the neighbors, I disremember which one it was, but they says they won't be back to lunch, bein' as they don't like to ate without the ithers. Have ye had any lunch yerself, child?"
"No, and neither has Cousin Ben."