Page:Anna Chapin--Half a dozen boys.djvu/41

Rh “You have missed me, then?” asked the child anxiously, as she drew him to the sofa and seated herself by his side.

“Missed you, you silly boy! What a question! Of course I have. ‘We boys,’ as Rob says, have been longing for you to be back again. I have felt quite lost without you.”

“How is Rob,—and all the other boys?” inquired Fred, relieved that Bess seemed so unconscious of his condition.

“Well, all of them. Rob is coming down as soon as you feel like seeing him. I see more of him than I do of any of the others. Phil runs in once in a while, but he is so busy all the time. Teddy was at the house one day last week, the same dear, slangy boy as ever. But tell me, am I not crazy to come down such a day?”

“It’s a kind of crazy I like,” said Fred. “You were awfully good to come, and I’ve been alone here ever so long.”

“So much the better,” said Bess, mentally abusing the mother who could leave her boy under such circumstances; “we can have a real good, old-fashioned visit, and when you get tired of me, you may send me off.”