"My dear, dear friends!" he said, and stretched out both hands towards the company, as if to clasp them all to his heart. "What a beautiful, beautiful scene! So homelike, so cosy, so sociable, so—so—What can be so beautiful as the gathering together of friends about the family hearth! So beautiful!" There was a Latrobe stove in the room, but no hearth; however, that made no difference; he went, with his hands outstretched, to Aunt Amanda, and pressed one of hers in both of his.
The Old Codger with the Wooden Leg immediately sidled up to him, and while he was still pressing Aunt Amanda's hand, said, in a confidential tone:
"Ahem! I'm delighted to see you again. I trust you are well. The fact is, I find that I have—er—left my tobacco pouch at home,—most unfortunate; very seldom forget it; completely lost without it; I was wondering—er—ahem!—if you happened to have such a thing about you as a—"
"No!" said the other old man, changing at once from beaming benevolence to stern severity. "I'll be
hanged if I do!" And he released Aunt Amanda's hand, and turned his back on the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg.
"Now," said Toby, "let's look at the map. This here is Mr. Punch, and this is Freddie."
The newcomer took Mr. Punch's hand in both of his and squeezed it softly; he then took Freddie's hand in both of his and pressed it tenderly. Freddie knew him. He was the "other Old Codger, as sly as a fox, who always had tobacco in his old tobacco-box." Freddie could hardly believe that that white-haired old gentleman could be as sly as a fox.
"My dear, dear friends!" said the Sly Old Fox. "What is so beautiful as the love of friends?" He stopped to glare at the Old Codger with the Wooden Leg, who looked away nervously. "The love of friends! Gathered together around the family hearth! How beautiful! It touches me, my friends, it touches me——"
"That's all right about that," said Toby. "For heaven's sake, let's look at the map!"
Aunt Amanda spread out the map on the table beside her, and the others gathered round.