Sudley brought down the fore-legs of his chair to the floor with a thump. Despite his anxiety a slow light of ridicule began to kindle on his face; his curling lip showed his strong white teeth.
“Waal, by gum! ye mus' hev been a sight ter be seen! Ye, forty or fifty years old, a-settin' on the same seat with the chil'n at the deestric' school, an' a-competin' with the leetle tadpoles fur 'Baker an' Shady' an sech!”
He was about to break forth with a guffaw of great relish when Nehemiah spoke hastily, forestalling the laughter.
“Naw; Abner Sage war thar fur a good while las' winter a-visitin' his sister, an' he kem an' gin me lessons an' set me copies thar at my house, an' I larnt a heap.”
Leander lifted his head suddenly. The amount of progress possible to this desultory and limited application he understood only too well. He had not learned so much himself to be unaware how much in time and labor learning costs. The others perceived no incongruity. Sudley's face was florid with pride and pleasure, and his wife's reflected the glow.
“Ab Sage at the cross-roads! Then he mus' hev tole ye 'bout Lee-yander hyar, an' his larnin'. Ab tole, I know.”
Nehemiah drew his breath in quickly. His twinkling eyes sent out the keenest glance of suspicion, but the gay, affectionate, vaunting laugh, as Tyler Sudley turned around and clapped the boy a ringing blow on his slender shoulder, expressed only the plenitude of his simple vainglory.
“Lee-yander hyar knows it all!” he boasted. “Old Ab himself don't know no mo'! I'll be bound old Ab went a-braggin'—hey, Lee-yander?”
But the boy shrank away a trifle, and his smile was mechanical as he silently eyed his relative.
“Ab 'lowed he war tur'ble disobejient,” said Nehemiah, after a pause, and cautiously allowing himself to follow in the talk, “an' gi'n over ter playin' the fiddle.” He hesitated for a moment, longing to stigmatize its ungodliness; but the recollection of Tyler Sudley's uncertain temper decided him, and he left it unmolested. “But Ab 'lowed ye war middlin' quick at figgers, Lee-yander—middlin' quick at figgers!”