'I!' exclaimed Hec, ready to swell up with indignation like an angry turkey-cock, 'I— I were fetchin' a chair and——'
'Stop, boys,' said Aunt Mattie again. 'Now let's go on nicely. This is Ger, and he wants to be very polite now and shake hands—eh, Ger?'
Ger's round blue eyes were fixed on the small stranger.
'Her's not a young lady,' he said at last. 'Ger 'ud rather kith her.'
The little girl leaned forward at once, and kissed his firm, plump cheek.
'Thoo ith tho thoft,' he said, and he stroked her cape and the chinchilla muff she was holding. 'I know—thoo's a mouse.'
He said the 's' quite plainly, for his lisp was a very changeable one, and already he was on the way to lose it altogether.
Everybody laughed. Ger liked the sound of the laugh—it was not making fun of him.
'Yeth,' he went on, 'uth'll call thoo'—with some effort—'Mith Mouse.'
Miss Mouse leant forward a second time and kissed him again.