"What are you going to give him, mother ?" "Another bath-robe; his old one is so worn.

And nothing is too good for my boy." "He's coming," said Adeline, who was still looking down the road; and they all concealed their birthday work in haste.
A tall, straight young fellow, with an air of suddenly-faced maturity upon him, opened the gate under the pepper trees and came toward them.
He had the finely molded features we see in portraits of handsome ancestors, seeming to call for curling hair a little longish, and a rich profusion of ruffled shirt.

But his hair was sternly short, his shirt severely plain, his proudly carried head spoke of effort rather than of ease in its attitude.
Dora skipped to meet him, Cora descended a decorous step or two.
Madeline and Adeline, arm in arm, met him at the piazza edge, his mother lifted her face.
"Well, mother, dear!" Affectionately he stooped and kissed her, and she held his hand and stroked it lovingly.

The sisters gathered about with teasing affection, Dora poking in his coat-pocket for the stick candy her father always used to bring her, and her brother still remembered.
"Aren't you home early, dear ?" asked Mrs.Warden.
"Yes; I had a little headache"-- he passed his hand over his forehead--"and Joe can run the store till after supper, anyhow." They flew to get him camphor, cologne, a menthol-pencil.

Dora dragged forth the wicker lounge.