"I don't think I could be happy at Elmhurst without Kenneth." "He has quite reformed," said Louise, "and seems like a very nice boy." "He's a little queer, yet, at times," added Beth, "but not a bit rude, as he used to be." Aunt Jane looked from one to the other in amazement.

No one had spoken so kindly of the boy before in years.

And Uncle John, with a thoughtful look on his face, said slowly: "The fact is, Jane, you've never given the boy a chance.

On the contrary, you nearly ruined him by making a hermit of him and giving him no schooling to speak of and no society except that of servants.
He was as wild as a hawk when I first came, but these girls are just the sort of companions he needs, to soften him and make him a man.
I've no doubt he'll come out all right, in the end." "Perhaps you'd like to adopt him yourself, John," sneered the woman, furious at this praise of the one person she so greatly disliked.
Her brother drew his hands from his pockets, looked around in a helpless and embarrassed way, and then tried fumblingly to fill his pipe.
"I ain't in the adopting business, Jane," he answered meekly.

"And if I was," with a quaint smile, "I'd adopt one or two of these nieces o' mine, instead of Tom Bradley's nephew.