Do you want him to be fond of you? inquired Mary.
I used to hate it because he was not fond of me. If he grew fond of me
I think I should tell him about the Magic. It might make him more
cheerful.
CHAPTER XXVI.
IT S MOTHER!
Their belief in the Magic was an abiding thing. After the morning s
incantations Colin sometimes gave them Magic lectures.
I like to do it, he explained, because when I grow up and make great
scientific discoveries I shall be obliged to lecture about them and so
this is practise. I can only give short lectures now because I am very
young, and besides Ben Weatherstaff would feel as if he were in church
and he would go to sleep.
Th best thing about lecturin , said Ben, is that a chap can get up
an say aught he pleases an no other chap can answer him back. I
wouldn t be agen lecturin a bit mysel sometimes.
But when Colin held forth under his tree old Ben fixed devouring eyes
on him and kept them there. He looked him over with critical affection.
It was not so much the lecture which interested him as the legs which
looked straighter and stronger each day, the boyish head which held
itself up so well, the once sharp chin and hollow cheeks which had
filled and rounded out and the eyes which had begun to hold the light
he remembered in another pair. Sometimes when Colin felt Ben s earnest
gaze meant that he was much impressed he wondered what he was
reflecting on and once when he had seemed quite entranced he questioned
him.
What are you thinking about, Ben Weatherstaff? he asked.
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