think, that she had still this and that root to peel, and soon grandfather began to puff his meerschaum yet more frequently, and smoked until he almost vanished from our eyes in a cloud of tobacco.
Father was wont to say that this augured nothing good with him.
After this they began to talk about one thing and another, but through it all it was evident that they only talked for the sake of talking, and such conversation never succeeds, because it does not come from the heart. All of them had some topic continually in his mind, which he kept trying to lead up to, and on that account kept saying “yes,” and nodding and answering in a formal manner, until all again languished.
“What a piece of work the supper takes to-day,” said grandfather again after a pause.
“You always have something to complain of,” answered grandmother, and kept bustling about the kitchen grate.
“To be sure, let him learn to come in time,” said grandfather, and began again to smoke furiously.
“It is just to-day you are aware that he is not coming; on other occasions you scarcely trouble yourself about him,” answered grandmother.
“Let him hang about your neck like a spoilt child,” said grandfather contemptuously.
“After all he is my son, and if I do not stand by him you certainly will not stand by him,” she answered.
It was only then that we children noticed that we had not seen Uncle John. And about him the matter was.
Uncle John was two and twenty years old—of an age
