“O, you little torment!” cried Charlie; “if you haven’t pulled out all the scions Mr. Welch gave me!”
It was even so. Ben, attracted by the bunches of clay covered with tow, and the scions sticking up through them, had made a clean sweep, and pulled out or broken off every one.
“Only see, mother!” said Charlie; “they’ve nearly all started! There’s one got two leaves, and there’s two more with the buds opening!”
“I’ve a good mind,” said his mother,” to give him a good whipping.”
Ben, who loved Charlie with all his heart, seeing he was angry with him, began to cry as if his heart would break.
“Don’t cry,” said Charlie, mollified in an instant. “I wouldn’t whip him, mother. He didn’t know any better. I’m glad I didn’t graft all of them.”
To change his thoughts, he took his gun and Sailor, and, getting into the Twilight, pulled over to Griffin’s Island.