"Now you have gone and put your weight on your foot and it is all my fault."
"Oh, no! Not at all!"
"It is just as much my fault as that Tweedles came in worn out with making a living and had dirty faces and were hungry——"
"Nobody said that was your fault!"
"Well, what was my fault, then?"
"It was your fault for looking at me so disapprovingly. You were what Tweedles call Mr. Tuckerish. You were so cold and grown-up and made me feel so young and naughty, and as I had not done a thing on earth but just suggest to the girls that they try to earn some money, not specifying how they should go about it, it did seem hard that you should be so hard on me. It hurt my feelings."
"Well, on the other hand, little girl, how about my feelings? Here I had come tearing home from Norfolk expecting to find three charming girls, all of them overjoyed to see me, and what do I find? Nothing but 'What, yous!' from first one and then the other—stammered greetings, and then tears and flashing eyes and false accusations."
At that I burst out laughing, and Zebedee did the same. It was such a tempest in a teapot! I was ahead of him, however, and by my sudden anger over nothing or almost nothing I had unwittingly turned his attention from Tweedles and their misdemeanors, and now I was sure he would be only amused over their escapade.
"We are all of us mighty glad to have you back. I don't see what made you think we weren't."
"Foolish of me, wasn't it? I realize now that it was excess of emotion and delight that made all of you behave as you did."