“Don’t worry about that, Motherkin. I have heard Mr. Brook say that his ‘man’ has several thousand dollars in the bank. You see he gets forty dollars a month, and his ‘keep.’ Besides that he has his clothing given him, and he has no relatives of whom he knows. I think my employer told me these facts, in view of our feeling just this way about the wagon. It really will not hurt Mr. Dolloway to use some of his money, for they will always take care of him, anyway.”
“Well, it must rest as it is for the present. Only let each be carefully polite and attentive to the poor old fellow, that he may fully understand we do appreciate our obligations to him.”
“Yes, Motherkin. But there’s somebody else who, I fancy, is deserving of some gratitude,—Mr. ‘Humpty-Dumpty’! But for his brightness we should still be at odds with our humble patron! All in favor of thanking the Lieutenant of the Bee Squad, say, Aye!”
“Aye!” “Aye!”
“Yes, really, thank you, my little boy.”
“Don’t mention it!” returned Robert, with a complete imitation of grown-ups and with his own inimitable little swagger.
Whereupon everybody laughed again, and Bonny moved the piano-stool into place for her mother’s use.
“Belle, I always like to have something nice to go to sleep on,—to think of, I mean, the last thing at night; so I want you to hear. You are to go over to Miss Brook’s in the morning; and you are going to be the very proudest, most delighted young woman in Orange County!”
So cried Bonny, tiptoeing into her sister’s room late that night, and rousing that tired maiden from her first nap.
“Why, Beatrice! I was asleep. Haven’t you been in bed yet?”