"I'm sure it's very good of him," said Miss Penny. "By all means serve us all at once together, Mrs. Carré. I guess we can stand it if he can."
"That iss all right then," said Mrs. Carré, and the common evening meal became an institution—to Graeme's vast enjoyment.
XIII
When the girls went into their room after breakfast to put on their hats and scrambling shoes, they saw Graeme sitting on the low stone wall, as usual, smoking his after-breakfast pipe, and they caught a part of the conversation in progress between him and Johnny Vautrin.
"I see five crows 's mawnin'," they heard in Johnnie's sepulchral voice.
"Really, now! Catch any?"
"There wuss five crows."
"Ah—five? That's an odd number! And what special ill-luck do you infer from five crows, Johnnie?"
"Someone's goan to be sick," said Johnnie, with joyous anticipation.
"Dear me! That's what five crows mean, is it?"