He SEEMED to be having a good time, didn't he, Sam ?" "Ma'am ?" "Didn't Georgie seem to be enjoying himself ?" This question, apparently so simple, was not answered with promptness.
Sam looked at his mother in a puzzled way, and then he found it necessary to rub each of his shins in turn with the palm of his right hand.
"I stumbled," he said apologetically.

"I stumbled on the cellar steps." "Did you hurt yourself ?" she asked quickly.
"No'm; but I guess maybe I better rub some arnica--" "I'll get it," she said.

"Come up to your father's bathroom, Sam.

Does it hurt much ?" "No'm," he answered truthfully, "it hardly hurts at all." And having followed her to the bathroom, he insisted, with unusual gentleness, that he be left to apply the arnica to the alleged injuries himself.

He was so persuasive that she yielded, and descended to the library, where she found her husband once more at home after his day's work.
"Well ?" he said.