He stood watching her neat work.
"I am ashamed of myself, mother, when I look at you."
"Why?"
"Because I don't deserve to have you do this for me."
She looked up and gave him one of her grave clear glances, and said,
"Will you deserve it, Will?"
He stood with full eyes and hushed tongue by her table, for the space of five minutes. Then spoke with a change of tone.
"Well, I'm going down to help Winthrop catch some fish for supper; and you sha'n't cook 'em, mamma, nor Karen neither. Karen's cooking is not perfection. By the by, there's one thing more I do want, — and confoundedly too, — a pair of boots; — I really don't know how to do without them."
"Boots?" — said his mother, in an accent that sounded a little dismayful.
"Yes. — I can get capital ones at Asphodel — really stylish ones — for five dollars; — boots that would last me handsome a great while; and that's a third less than I should have to give anywhere else, — for such boots. You see I shall want them at Little River — I shall be thrown more in the way of seeing people — there's a great deal of society there. I don't see that I can get along without them."