“Sit on him? Yes, I think likely. He’s done it before, and it’s about the only thing that will keep Nick sober when he has made up his mind that he wants to get drunk. It’s a good plan to keep Nick sober, too, for when he gets drunk most anything’s likely to happen.”
“No, I meant, do you think he will get drunk?”
Emerson shrugged his shoulders. “I reckon that will depend on whether Tom goes to sleep or not.”
“Where are they?”
“Out on the porch with Bye-Bye.”
They went out on the veranda where Tom and Nick were standing, and Marguerite put a hand on the arm of each, looking up in their faces with smiling earnestness. “I wonder,” she said, “if I could ask you boys to do something for me while we are gone?”
They turned toward her eagerly. “You bet we’ll do anything you-all want us to, Mrs.—Mrs.—” Nick tried to say “Mrs. Mead,” choked a little, and ended with “Mrs. Emerson.” And “Mrs. Emerson” she was to him and Tom from that time forth.
“What can we-all do?” asked Tom.
“Why, I’ve been hoping you wouldn’t mind looking after Paul a little bit for me. I am so afraid he will miss me, because I’ve always been with him. The housekeeper will take good care of him, of course, but I know he will be lonely if there is nothing to distract his mind. And I couldn’t be happy, even on my wedding journey, if I thought my little Bye-Bye was crying for me.”