"He has been a good father--I couldn't have had a better; no boy could. My dear, good mother, too, she will feel it. They told you I was dying, didn't they?"
The mournful look in Timothy's eyes was an eloquent answer.
"It's true, Tim; I knew it before they did, before even the doctor did. Long ago I knew I should never live to be a man. I don't know whether I'm sorry or glad. There's Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott--I say, isn't 'Ivanhoe' splendid?"
"I don't know, Teddy. I never read it. But what about Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott?"
"They're dead, aren't they?"
"Of course they are."
"There it is, you see. It comes to the same thing. The only difference is in being born earlier or later."
"I say, Teddy, where did you get all this from?"
"All what, Tim?"
"This way of talking."