"Yes, keep your spirits up!" he said.
"It's dull work with the boys away, isn't it, Aunt Mary?
And Scooter is a most sagacious animal--almost as intelligent as Peter the Great who coils himself on Stella's threshold every night as if he thought the bogeyman was coming to spirit her away.

He's developing into a habit, isn't he Stella?
You'd better be careful." Stella smiled her faint, tired smile.

"I like to have him there," she said.

"I am not nervous, of course, but he is a friend." "You'll never shake him off," predicted Tommy.

"He comes of a romantic stock.