The boys had begun it, but she was older and could have turned it aside had she wished.

And she thought it perfectly natural that he should dislike the dog if he thought his mother preferred its comfort to his.
"You'd like dogs if you could have one like my old Fritz," began Lloyd, glad of some one to talk to.

Sitting down on the bench that the maid had left, she began talking of him and the pony and the other pets at Locust, At first the boys listened carelessly.

Howell cracked his whip, and Henderson slapped his feet with the ends of the reins he wore.

They were not used to having stories told them, except when they were being scolded, and their mother or the maid told them tales of what happens to bad little boys when they will not obey.