"A million of them?"
"Almost a million," he replied. "Every grass-stalk had one on it, teetering and singing away like anything."
"Why, I didn't know Rita was with you."
"Rita!" he exclaimed, reddening.
"Why, yes," I said. "You saw so many birds, you know."
It was a little hard upon the boy, but I broke the ensuing silence with some comments on the weather, and having him wholly at my mercy then, I chose a subject which so long had charmed me, I had been on the point of telling him time and again, yet had refrained.
"Robin," said I, "you will be a graduate in a day or two. What do you say to a summer in England, boy?"
He caught my hand—so violently that the rein was drawn and Pegasus turned obediently into the ditch and stopped.
"England, father!"
"If we are spared," I said, getting the buggy into the road again.