He glanced and made no reply.

He sometimes had a dignified masculine way, beyond his years, of eschewing all unnecessary words.

His mother saw him look at the time; why should he speak?
She did not wait for him.

"'Most ten o'clock," said she, "and a great boy twelve years old lazing round on a rock in a pasture when all his folks are working.
Here's your mother, feeble as she is, workin' her fingers to the bone, while you're doing nothing a whole forenoon.

I should think you'd be ashamed of yourself.