And then Eager strode in with a brighter face even than usual.
"Afraid I wasn't coming, were you?" he laughed.
"Thought maybe you'd gone to see HIM again," said Jack.
"Your grandfather? No; I've been seeing some one very much nicer. Jim, did you say your verse this morning?"
This was a gigantic innovation, and still much of a mere ritual. But it was a beginning, and the rest would follow. It was the first upward step towards those higher things which Charles Eager kept ever steadily in view.
"Forgot," grunted Jim.
This again was mighty gain. A month ago--if such a contingency had been possible--he would never have owned up. To his grandfather it is doubtful if he would have owned up even now.
"Well, oblige me by going behind that sand-hill and saying it now, and think what you're saying as well as you can. And you, Jack?"
"Said um," said Jack dutifully.
"Never saw you," said Jim, on his knees. Whereupon Jack dashed at him and rolled him over prayer and all, and they had a regular former-state set-to.