“Aw wight,” said Toddie. “Izhn’t it most time now?”
“Tod’s all stomach,” said Budge. “Say, Aunt Alice, I hope you won’t forget to have some fruit-cake. That’s the kind we like best.”
“You’ll come home very early, Harry?” asked Mrs. Burton, ignoring her nephew’ question.
“By noon, at furthest,” said the gentleman. “I only want to see my morning letters, and fill any orders that may be in them.”
“What are you coming so early for, Uncle Harry?” asked Budge.
“To take Aunt Alice riding, old boy,” said Mr. Burton.
“Oh! just listen, Tod! Won’t that be jolly? Uncle Harry’s going to take us riding!”
“I said I was going to take your Aunt Alice, Budge,” said Mr. Burton.
“I heard you,” said Budge, “but that won’t trouble us any. She always likes to talk to you better than she does to us. Where are we going?”
Mr. Burton asked his wife, in German, whether the Lawrence-Burton assurance was not charmingly natural, and Mrs. Burton answered in the same tongue that it was, but was none the less deserving of rebuke, and that she felt it her duty to tone it down in her nephews. Mr. Burton wished her joy of the attempt, and asked a number of searching questions about success already attained, until Mrs. Burton was glad to see Toddie come out of a brown study and hear him say: