Elizabeth Ann looked around, but could see no bells. She had already asked so many questions—even for her—that she didn’t want to ask another. And Doris, as usual, said nothing. Even when Doris didn’t understand things, she wouldn’t ask questions. She knew that if she waited long enough, Elizabeth Ann would find out about them and explain them.
“Oh, I forgot Tony!” cried Elizabeth Ann suddenly. “His feelings will be hurt; I never forgot him before.”
“Tony is in the kitchen,” Uncle Hiram assured her. “I brought him in. He’s under the stove and as soon as he gets a little better acquainted, I think he’ll come out.”
While they were eating supper—and a most delicious supper it was, too, for Aunt Grace was a famous cook—Elizabeth Ann heard the clock strike again. It sounded like a bell and she remembered what Uncle Hiram had said—“four bells.”
Elizabeth Ann counted the strokes.
“It must be six o’clock,” she said politely.
“It’s seven o’clock,” said Aunt Grace.
“I just heard it strike six bells,” Uncle Hiram declared, taking out his great silver watch. “Yes, the clock keeps good time—it’s exactly seven o’clock.”
“But it struck six,” said the puzzled Elizabeth Ann.
“Now for pity’s sake, don’t tell that child about ship’s time to-night,” begged Aunt Grace. “I’ve been married to your Uncle Hiram for fifteen years,” she added, turning to Elizabeth Ann, “and I can’t make head or tail of his bells. I go by my good Christian clock, and I say it’s seven o’clock when it is seven o’clock; six bells will never mean seven o’clock to me.”