He tried to laugh. "And the feather, and the sash, and the sword, and the spurs, do you forget them?"
She broke down completely at that. "I don't want 'em; I'd rather have you than everything else in the world!"
"Even than stripes on my pantaloons?"
"O papa!" she sobbed, "what makes you laugh at me when I'm most dead?"
"Margaret," exclaimed Mr. Granger, "don't let this child miss me!"
"Not if I can help it," she replied.
He was to do staff duty till the bloom of his ignorance should be rubbed off, Mr. Granger said. One whose sole idea of a wheel was that it was something round with spokes in it, whose only forward had been learned of the dancing-master, and who knew no worse charge than the grocer's—such a person could scarcely be expected to lead men in battle array. He was going down there to get some of the little boys to teach him drill.
It was impossible to resist his delightful humor. Even Mr. Lewis relented.
"If ever the doing of a thing could be forgiven for the sake of the manner in which it is done," he said, "then I could forgive you. But I can't promise to turn back all at once from bonny-clabber to new milk."
"Oh! scold away," was the laughing reply. "I begin to think that there is a certain pleasure in being abused in a discriminating manner."