"Know when he's coming?"
"No! Don't suppose it will make any difference, though."
"S'pose not!"
"H'm!"
"H'm!"
Reaching the house, they sat down on the steps and pitched gravel stones in gloomy rivalry. So sitting, it chanced that Bell came upon them; Bell, with a face more than commonly bright (though she was always one of the most cheerful of mortals), with her hands full of ground pine, fresh from a walk in the woods, humming a fragment of the Mendelssohn Concerto.
"What's the matter with my boys?" she demanded, promptly.
"Nothing!" responded the twins, with alacrity. And they lowered like toppling thunderclouds.
"Then tell me all about it!" said Sister Bell, sitting down on the step, and taking a hand of each.
"What happened to my twinnies? Did some one throw away their tadpoles, or did the dog eat their molasses candy?"