"Well, you see," said Mr. Chipperton, "I had a bite just at that minute; and, besides, I really did not look for you on such a little boat. I had an idea you would come on something more respectable than that."
"As if we should ever think of respectability at such a time!" said Mrs. Chipperton, with tears in her eyes.
"As for you boys," said Mr. Chipperton, getting up and taking us each by the hand, "I don't know what to say to you."
I thought, for my part, that they had all said enough already. They had praised and thanked us for things we had never thought of.
"I almost wish you were orphans," he continued, "so that I might adopt you. But a boy can't have more than one father. However, I tell you! a boy can have as many uncles as he pleases. I'll be an uncle to each of you as long as I live. Ever after this call me Uncle Chipperton. Do you hear that?"
We heard, and said we'd do it.
Soon after this, lots of people came in, and the whole thing was gone over again and again. I am sorry to say that, at one or two places in the story, Mrs. Chipperton kissed us both again.
Before we went down to dinner, I asked Uncle Chipperton how his lung had stood it, through all this exposure.
"Oh, bother the lung!" he said. "I tell you; boys, I've lost faith in that lung,—at least, in there being anything the matter with it. I shall travel for it no more."