"Certainly not," said Tom, and he walked straight to the parlor, and repeated to his parents every word he had heard.
"She certainly grieves more than is natural considering the circumstances," said the Squire, "and if the old man's conjectures are correct, you are here just in the nick of time, Tom."
"I don't know about that," said Tom, rather dubiously, "she will have to change wonderfully if she gives a fellow a chance to see or speak to her while we stay."
"I shall try to prevail upon the poor child to come down awhile this evening," said Mrs. Tinknor very gently.
"A handsome fortune is not to be obtained by marriage every day," said the Squire.
"A noble-hearted, whole-souled woman like Little Wolf is not to be obtained every day," said Mrs. Tinknor, "but, I never thought," said she affectionately regarding her son, "that Little Wolf cherished other than a sister's love for Tom."
Tom was silent, and, after a short pause, Mrs. Tinknor said, "when you came in Tom, I was telling your father of a conversation I had with Little Wolf last evening, concerning her going home with us, but she thinks it best, on account of her dependent family, not to break up house-keeping before Spring."
"Displaying thereby very little financial ability," said Tom, rather contemptously.
"Tut, tut," said the Squire, "Little Wolf is posted. She knows just as much about her father's affairs as I do, She would give me no rest months ago, until I spread out the whole thing before her, and I believe her to be as capable of managing the property, as a woman can be.
"I reminded her of the extra expense attending house-keeping," said Mrs. Tinknor, "but she said she felt it her duty to provide for those poor creatures in her employment. There's Daddy, you know, cannot, more than earn his board, and Mrs. Hawley besides being feeble, has no other home, and nobody would do as well by an inefficient girl like Sorrel Top, as she does, and then she has decided to take Fanny Green into her family for the winter."