When Gay flashed into the room a moment later both aunts were sewing composedly and neither looked up immediately. Wasting time in the house when the outside world was flooded with August sunshine was not to Gay's taste, but politeness demanded it, so he shifted from one foot to the other like an uneasy chicken, until Miss Linn said,—
"Won't you sit down?"
"I will," said Gay, with emphasis that said, "I will but I don't want to."
"What have you been doing?" questioned Miss Linn.
"Sawing wood," Gay replied, animatedly. "I can saw a stick quite straight. Did you ever try to saw wood, Aunt Beulah?"
Miss Linn did not answer at once; such a question deprived her of speech, but at length she said,—
"Most assuredly not."
"I think you'd like it," said Gay, with increasing animation. "First you put your saw on the stick and it wobbles all around before you can make it stay anywhere. Then, when you have made a little place for the saw, the saw sticks right in it and you pull and up comes the stick and your foot flies off it! Then you begin again and work a little way into the stick and everything goes beautifully till you strike a knot or something and the old saw won't budge an inch! So you lift it out of the hole and begin again—sawing wood is all beginning again; that's the way it's done and pretty, soon away goes the saw, squealing and creaking, and you are so excited at that time that you work away like mad, and, then, all of a sudden the saw goes through, with a sort of surprise and you go on top of it, the stick falls apart—and there you are!"
As Gay illustrated his description as he gave it, using a Venetian dagger for a saw, a Swiss paper-cutter for a stick of wood and a Fayal foot-stool for a saw-horse, the ladies were clearly instructed in the mysteries of wood sawing.
"My dear niece," said Miss Linn, slowly and impressively, "sawing wood is not a fitting employment for a little girl who wants to be a lady when she grows up. I suppose that is what you aspire to be, isn't it?"