Gladys gazed at him earnestly while one might have counted ten, and then said, speaking slowly and distinctly:
“I don’t believe it. Aunt Hannah says you’re the best boy she ever saw; an’ she knows.”
“Did Aunt Hannah tell you that, or are you tryin’ to stuff me?” And Seth rose to his feet excitedly.
“I hope you don’t think I’d tell a lie?”
“Of course I don’t, Gladys; but if you only knew how much it means to me—Aunt Hannah’s sayin’ what you claim she did—there wouldn’t be any wonder I had hard work to believe it.”
“She said to me those very same words——”
“What ones?”
“That you was the best boy she ever saw, an’ it was only yesterday afternoon, when you were splitting kindling wood, that she said it.”
Then, suddenly, to Gladys’ intense surprise, Seth dropped his head on his arm and burst into a flood of tears.