“I’ve got a skate-strap; you may have that,” said Chuck Witham, who was aching to be once more noticed, for no one spoke to him now.
“Thank you,” said Bert, though not very cordially, and took it, and with this they fastened the owl in the entry of the schoolhouse.
“Is not Ned Conly as quick as lightning?” said Arthur Nevins to Elmer; “who but he would have thought of that way to get James over there; he might have invited him till Doomsday to no purpose, but when James found Bertie couldn’t have the owl unless he went, that brought him. Only think how long we’ve been trying to get him to come to our house.”
James Brings down an Owl. Page [175].
“What shall we do with James, mother?” said Peter, as he and Bertie were preparing to go to Mr. Conly’s. “What shall we do with him when he comes? We don’t want him to sit all the evening and look straight into the fire, and never open his mouth, and Ned won’t either, and he’ll be frightened half to death.”
“I’ll tell you what to do,” said the grandfather; “ask him questions that he cannot answer by yes and no; he’ll have to answer them, and after he hears the sound of his own voice a few times he’ll gain courage.”
“What shall we ask him?”
“Ask him about the manner in which they do farming work in the old country, and if you can get him started, he will, I have no doubt, tell a great many things that Mr. Conly’s folks would like to know, for he never learned to reap, and mow, and break flax, and swingle it, and handle horses as he does, without working on the land a good deal. He talks when he is in the shop with me.”
The boys set out, leaving Maria to come with James, in order that he might not be obliged to come in alone.