Allowing some few minutes for this to take effect, Master Robert called across the chamber to little Sam, "I wonder why Aunt Hannah wears that old green shade on her face?"
"Pray don't say anything about that," little Sam answered, "Cousin don't like to hear about that!"
Master Robert—rather a blunt young gentleman—is not to be baffled so easily.
"I say, Bill, why does your mother wear that green patch over her eye?" he called out.
There was no answer; he called again in a louder key.
"Hush!" whispered Peabody Junior, who was not asleep, but only thinking of it, in a tone of fear, "I don't know."
"Is the eye gone?" Robert asked again, bent on satisfaction of some kind.
"I don't know," was the whispered answer again. "Don't ask me anything about it."
"I'm afraid Aunt Hannah's not happy," suggested little Sam, timidly.
"Pr'aps she is'nt, Sam," Peabody Junior answered.