"Oh! him?" gasped Uncle Jason, flushing dully. "Why—jest nothin' at all! nothin' at all! Came to tell me—ahem!—Tom Hotchkiss hadn't come back yet."
"Why, I told you that, Dad!" ejaculated Marty in surprise.
"Ya-as—so ye did," faltered his father. "But Aaron knowed I wanted to see Tom——"
"What for?" demanded Aunt 'Mira, with an insistence in getting at the meat in the kernel that amazed Janice.
"Why—er—on business," admitted Mr. Day stumblingly.
"There it goes!" broke down Aunt 'Mira, fairly sobbing now. "Jest as soon as I wanter know about anything I should know about, I'm put down an' sat upon. Oh! Oh!"
"Woman! you're crazy!" ejaculated Mr. Day, pushing back his chair hastily and leaving his supper but half eaten.
Janice ran to put her arms about Aunt 'Mira's plump and shaking shoulders, meanwhile motioning her uncle toward the sitting room. Marty, having finished, rose to follow his father.
"There!" sobbed Mrs. Day, "it's jest as I tell ye. He don't relish my victuals. He ain't et supper enough for a sparrow."
"Any sparrow that et what dad did," said Marty as he left the room, "would die of apoplexy! Turn off the water-works, Ma. That won't get you nothin'."