All of them laughed at this and Mrs. Reynolds cried a little more.

“Now you are my own boy again,” she laughed through her tears.

“You remind me, Mother, of Tennyson’s lines,” quoted Mr. Reynolds:

“Home they brought her warrior dead;

She nor swooned, nor uttered cry.

All her maidens, watching, said,

‘She must weep or she will die.’”

“It seems to more like Sawyer’s parody on Tennyson,” suggested Frances:

“Home they brought her sailor son,