"'For to catch a whale:
All the water that he had
Was'"—
"In Black-Clear Eddy apparently," the voice of Tom Putnam said close behind her.
So absorbed had she been, that she had not heard him approach. She sprang up quickly, and faced him.
"I wish you a Merry Christmas!" he continued, before she could speak.
"Thank you!" she answered. "I wish you many. How came you here?"
"In the simplest way in the world. I walked."
"But people do not usually go strolling about wet fields in such weather as this."
"Oh! you mean to ask why I came here. I was going over to pay your grandmother her pension for the month—and to see you."
"I am flattered," Patty said, "by even so secondary a remembrance."