Lacey finished reading the letter she said to Leffie, who was still standing near, "Rondeau is well, and will be home in a few days." "When’s the new miss a comin’?" asked Aunt Dilsey. "Not at all," was Mrs. Lacey’s reply. "Glad on’t," said Dilsey, "for now Jack can spit as fur and as big spits as he wants to."

“When’s your father coming home?” “I don’t quite know—but I look for him any time now.” Dicky started to set the table. “I guess I wouldn’t have cried,” he said after a while, “if I could have cried last night when I first heard it. But of course I couldn’t let mother or Doc O’Brien know that I’d heard them—it would make them feel bad. I don’t want my mother ever to know that I know it.”