He started. "Ashamed of myself?" he answered, looking at the companionway down which Elizabeth had disappeared. "No doubt I should be. I do things enough to be ashamed of. But why?"
"You have not seemed to notice the honor that has befallen my family. My son is made ensign or lieutenant commander or something, and you have not remarked the event. I am afraid that you have hurt his feelings."
Bobby laughed as though he was relieved.
"So he is—ensign or something, as you say. And I did not observe it. I ask his pardon, Adam, and yours." And he called to Pukkie, who was following Captain Fergus about like a pet dog; and Pukkie came, and Bobby felicitated him upon his promotion. And Pukkie smiled until I feared lest his face crack.
"It is a trifle large," Bobby remarked, referring to the uniform, "but he will grow to it."
"It is not so much too large as it was," I said. "You should have seen him swell—like a toad-grunter."
"Daddy," protested the aggrieved Pukkie, "I'm not like a toad-grunter."
The toad-grunter is a much despised fish.