“Thank you,” said Mr. Burton. “That will be an inducement. And it explains why your papa can make a new coat look old quicker than any other man of my acquaintance.”
“And why your mother always has a skirt to clean or mend,” said Mrs. Burton.
“It’s all told now, Tod,” said Budge. “Why don’t you worry ’em?”
Toddie clasped his aunt’s skirts affectionately, and said, in most appealing tones:
“You’e a-goin’ to, izhn’t you?”
“Papa says it was always easier for you to say ‘yes’s than ‘no,’” remarked Budge; “an’——”
“A fine reputation your brother-in-law gives you,” remarked Mrs. Burton.
“An’ I once heard a lady say she thought you said ‘yes’s pretty easy,” continued Budge, addressing his aunt. “I thought she meant something that you said to Uncle Harry, by the way she talked.” Mrs. Burton flushed angrily, but Budge continued: “An’ you ought to be as good to us as you are to him, ’cause he’s a big man, an’ don’t have to be helped every time he wants any fun. Besides, you’ve got him all the time, but you can only have us four days longer—three days besides to-day.”
“Another paraphrase of Scripture—application perfect,” remarked Mr. Burton to his wife. “Shall we go?”
“Can you?” asked the lady, suddenly grown radiant.