When he wanted to, he could smile the most winning smile, and he could coax you into anything.
Mother said she dreaded to have to borrow a dime from him, if a peddler caught her without change, because she knew she'd be kept paying it back for the next six months.

Right now he was the busiest kind of a boy.
"Where is it?
Let me get a good lick at it! Don't scare the ducks!" he would cry, and chase them from one bank to the other, while Amanda danced and fought imaginary snakes.

For a woman who had seen as many as she must have in her life, it was too funny.

I don't think I could laugh harder, or Leon and Sammy.

We enjoyed ourselves so much that at last she began to be angry.