“Where’d you get that stuff?” said Dickie. “He isn’t anybody’s lawyer. He’s about the biggest man in town.”
“He’s a good scout,” Ralph interrupted. “He’s done lots of things for us since Father died.” He bit his lip with the effort of jabbing the awl through the tough leather, and then resumed: “Mother and Father both went to school to him, when he was a young fellow, working his way through college. Your father went to school to him, too, Jackie. Some day,” Ralph added, “I’m going to read law in his office.”
“I don’t want you to be a judge,” Nellie burst out. “I don’t want you to go putting folks in jail.”
“Well, you behave yourself,” Neil admonished, “and he won’t never put you there.”
At the implication that she might otherwise land some day in jail, Nellie began to whimper.
“Aw, you big cheese, stop teazing the kid!” cried Dickie.
Then he and Neil began to maul each other, regardless of the heat, and Nellie, quite forgetful of the fact that Dickie was her champion, went to help Neil who was getting the worst of it. She got hit on the nose, quite accidentally, but none the less she began at once to cry.
In the confusion of soothing Nellie and scolding the boys, Jacqueline and Ralph didn’t hear Aunt Martha call. But Freddie heard and cried:
“Look-it! Look-it! Auntie at the window!”
They looked, and there was Aunt Martha, at the open window of the dining room.