"So these Lilliputians are your nieces, Danby!" exclaimed Sir John.
"Well, no, they are not exactly nieces, though they are very near and dear. I am only a jury uncle."
"A jury uncle!" cried Moppet, throwing her head back and laughing at the unknown word.
"A jury uncle!" echoed the other two, and the three laughed prodigiously; not because they attached any meaning to the word, but only because they didn't know what it meant. That was where the joke lay.
"You know that in Cornwall and in Sicily all the elderly men are uncles, and all the old women aunts--everybody's uncles and aunts," concluded Mr. Danby.
Moppet still occupied Sir John's knee. She felt somehow that it was a post of honor, and she had no inclination to surrender it. Her tiny fingers had possessed themselves of his watch-chain.
"Please show me your watch," she said.
Sir John drew out a big hunter.
Moppet approached her little rosy mouth to the hinge and blew violently.
"Why don't it open as Uncle Tom's watch does when I blow?" she asked. "Is it broken?"