`All right,' said Jim, kissing her as he lifted her up
in his great strong arms. `I must go in and have a gossip with the old woman.
Aileen can tell me after tea. I daresay it's not so good that it won't keep.'

Mother was that fond of both of us that I believe, as sure as I sit here,
she'd have put her head on the block, or died in any other way
for either of her boys, not because it was her duty,
but glad and cheerful like, to have saved us from death or disgrace.
I think she was fonder of us two than she was of Aileen.
Mothers are generally fonder of their sons. Why I never could see;
and if she thought more of one than the other it was Jim.
He was the youngest, and he had that kind of big, frolicsome,
loving way with him, like a Newfoundland pup about half-grown.
I always used to think, somehow, nobody ever seemed to be able
to get into a pelter with Jim, not even father, and that was a thing
as some people couldn't be got to believe. As for mother and Aileen,
they were as fond of him as if he'd been a big baby.

So while he went to sit down on the stretcher, and let mother
put her arms round his neck and hug him and cry over him,
as she always did if he'd been away more than a day or two,
I took a walk down the creek with Aileen in the starlight,
to hear all about this message from father. Besides, I could see
that she was very serious over it, and I thought there might be
something in it more than common.

`First of all, did you make any agreement with George Storefield?' she said.

`No; why should I? Has he been talking to you about me?
What right has he to meddle with my business?'