"You have bought this for me?" he cried, glancing first at Kitty, who was watching him anxiously, trying to read from the expression of his countenance if he approved of her brother's choice, and then at Bob, who nodded assent. "Oh, how kind—how very, very kind of you both! Oh, thank you—thank you! Oh, it's a grand knife! Three blades! Oh, I say, I shall never be able to thank you half enough for this!" His eyes were sparkling with delight.
"Do you prefer it to one with a tortoiseshell handle?" questioned Kitty.
"Of course he does!" Bob exclaimed, without giving Tim time to answer for himself, "Any boy would! That tortoiseshell handled knife wasn't half as strong as this one; it was nice enough in its way, but it was only fit for a girl."
"You couldn't have given me one I should have liked better than this," Tim said earnestly, "I'm quite sure of that."
Kitty was satisfied. "That's all right then!" she said.
"Mother told us to ask you to tea with us, Shuttleworth," remarked Bob, a few minutes later, after Tim had tried all three blades of his new pocket-knife on a lead pencil. "Will you come?"
"Oh, thank you, I should like to—you know that," Tim replied. "Just wait whilst I put away my writing things and tell uncle where I'm going. I say, whatever made you think of giving me a present?"
"It was Kitty who thought of it," said Bob. "And when she mentioned it to me, I considered it a very good idea and wondered I hadn't thought of it myself. We're awfully pleased you like the knife—it's a keepsake, you know—something for you to remember us by."
Tim was much touched—so touched, indeed, that he could find no words to answer, but his face was eloquent of all the feelings in his warm Irish heart.
"We shall be very sorry when you're gone," said Kitty, looking at him with friendly blue eyes. "We shall miss you, oh, ever so much! You'll think of us all, and of Snip—oh, I shall never forget that you saved Snip's life! But, come, I'm sure it's near tea-time. I'm getting so hungry!"