"On the contrary," said she, giving him a sharp glance which he relished from her very bright though near-sighted eyes; "it is not often that I have become attached to anything so useful."
He laughed with mettlesome good-nature.
The bride, with her attendant brave, had gone up to Uncle Benny and the baby.
"Let me take him," she said, holding up her beautiful arms.
Uncle Benny smiled at her, half remembering her—it was an old joke, his becoming engaged to every pretty woman he met—but shook his head.
"It 's a particular trust," he said, in his very soft, sweet voice; "from Jesus Christ and mother. What if somebody should drop him, or hurt him? I have to be very careful, for it 's a trust.
"'There 's a tree I see in Paradise—'"
he suddenly broke into the song again in a loud and perfectly unembarrassed tone:
"'Sail away to Galilee.
It 's the beautiful, waiting Tree of Life—
Sail away to Galilee.
Sail away to Galilee.'"
******