When others were present she was wont to fling back upon him this burning query. Now it seemed to stimulate him to a rather unusual effort.
"S-some folks b-better when ye miss 'em," he suggested, with a smile of good-nature.
Miss Strong gathered up her knitting and promptly retired, from the scene. Sue and Socky lay back on the lap of their Uncle Silas looking into the fire. They now saw in him great possibilities. Socky, in particular, had begun to regard him as likely to be useful if not highly magnificent.
Sue lay back and began to make a drowsy display of her learning:
"Intry, mintry, cutry com,
Apple-seed an' apple-thorn,
Wire, brier, limber lock,
Twelve geese all in a white flock;
Some fly east an' some fly west
An' some fly over the cuckoo's nest."