Page:Emma Speed Sampson--The shorn lamb.djvu/41

Rh and lovely roses and box bushes that are as big as trees."

"Oh, I know you must love it!"

"I do," he answered simply. "I think I love it more than any spot on earth. I have not seen it for four years, as I have not gone home for the holidays. Next to the garden I love the attic at home. It is so quiet up there and so peaceful. My mother and I feel the same way about both of those places. My mother is wonderful, and I have a sister named Betsy, who is a darling girl, and a little brother named Jo, who was a fine youngster when I left home four years ago. He must be a great big toy by now, about fourteen, I think."

"You love your mother and sister and brother a whole lot, don't you?"

"I do indeed!"

"Then I am afraid, 'reasoning by elimination,' as Daddy used to say, that your father is the only one you do not love. You needn't blush so. I'm never going to tell anybody. You said in the beginning that you didn't adore all of your people."

"The truth is my father and I have never understood each other very well. I wanted an education and he didn't see the use of one and we were always pulling against each other