Garth's father and mother exchanged glances over his head.
"Poor man! He has never seen us do anything but play!" Aileen murmured. She patted his head. "We'll have to work a good deal, sonnie, but there will be time for quite a lot of fun, too. That has simply got to be arranged. And to begin with, I think it's high time you showed me things outside. It's disgraceful to have come to a new home and not to have put one's nose out all day. And outside is so much lovelier than inside!"
"It just is—ever so much," Garth cried. "Come along! I wonder will the pigs have gone to bed!"
"Sure you're not too tired?" Tom asked, a little anxiously.
"I will be less tired if I go," she said. "He hasn't had us for a moment all day."
They went out together, but at the door Tom turned back.
"Go on," he said, "I want my pipe: I'll catch you up."
He watched them stray off into the twilight. Then he went to the forgotten tea-table, cleared it, and washed the dishes. He did it very badly, and with a great deal of mess, never having washed dishes before; but no one who saw him as he worked would have judged the work hardly. Having finished, he wiped up the mess—of which there was a good deal—with a clean towel, surveyed the result with pride, and strode forth to find his family.
"You've been ever so long!" Garth complained. "Whatever have you been doing, Daddy?"
"Just playing round," said Tom. "What a mercy the pigs aren't in bed!"