The two nondescripts, who were passing, lingered to look
“Oh,” said Jumps earnestly, too thick-skinned to feel sarcasm, “I’m used to it. I have to help Papa about. He’s very old too.”
“Yet surely,” said I, tingeing my sarcasm with playfulness (but they were too thick-skinned even for playfulness), “surely not so old as I?”
“About the same,” said Jumps, considering me gravely.
“And how old,” said I, inquiring of Jane, for Jumps annoyed me too much, “may your friend’s excellent parent be?”
“Oh, about sixty, or seventy, or eighty,” said she, indifferently.
CHAPTER VIII
“THE children of England——” I remarked, when they had gone their way, their arms linked together, to Lord Sigismund who was hurrying past to the river with a bucket—but he interrupted me by shouting over his shoulder:
“Will you stay and light the fire, or come with us and forage for food?”