And they would have been a mouthful. Even Mrs. Gormley, who could see few faults in her son, declared that Chet “wasn’t behind the door when ears were given out.”
“Chet’s got a generous nature,” the good woman said to Carolyn May one day when the latter was making the seamstress a little visit. “It don’t take his ears to show that, though they do. He’d do anything for a friend. But I don’t know as he’s ’preciated as much as he’d oughter be,” sighed Mrs. Gormley. “Mr. Stagg, even, don’t know Chet’s good parts.”
“Oh, yes, Mrs. Gormley, I think Uncle Joe knows all about Chet’s ears. He couldn’t hardly miss ’em,” the little girl hastened to observe.
“Humph! I didn’t mean actual parts of his body,” Mrs. Gormley replied, eyeing the little girl over her spectacles. “I mean character. He’s a fine boy, Car’lyn May.”
“Oh! I think he is, too,” agreed the child. “And I’m sure Uncle Joe ’preciates him.”
“Well, I hope so,” sighed the seamstress. “You can’t much tell just what Mr. Joe Stagg thinks of folks. There’s him and Mandy Parlow. Somebody was tellin’ me Mr. Stagg was seen comin’ out o’ the Parlow house one day. But, shucks! that ain’t so, of course?” and she looked narrowly at her little visitor.
“Oh, I wish he would make up with Miss Amanda,” sighed Carolyn May. “She’s so nice.”
“And I guess he thought so, too—once. But you can’t tell, as I say. Mr. Joe Stagg is a man that never lets on what’s in his mind.”
Just then in burst Chet, quite unexpectedly, for it was not yet mid-afternoon.
“Oh, dear me! Mercy me!” gasped Mrs. Gormley. “What is the matter, Chetwood? Mr. Stagg hain’t let you go, has he?”