"An' plenty to eat, too, Uncle Billy; that's a good thing to have."

"Richt again, Ralph! richt again!" exclaimed Billy, enthusiastically,
pushing the burning tobacco down in the bowl of his pipe. "An' the
Widow Maloney, she do gi' us 'mazin' proper food, now, don't she? D'ye
min' that opple pie we had for sooper, lad?"

"Yes, that was good," said Ralph, gazing absently into the fire.
"They's only one thing more we need, Uncle Billy, an' that's somebody
to love us. Not but what you an' me cares a good deal for each other,"
added Ralph, apprehensively, as the man puffed vigorously away at his
pipe, "but that ain't it. I mean somebody, some woman, you know, 'at'd
kiss us an' comfort us an' be nice to us that way."

Billy turned and gazed contemplatively at Ralph. "Been readin' some
more o' them love-stories?" he asked, smiling behind a cloud of smoke.

"No, I ain't, an' I don't mean that kind. I mean your mother or your
sister or your wife--it'd be jes' like as though you had a wife, you
know, Uncle Billy."

Again, the man puffed savagely at his pipe before replying.

"Wull," he said at last, "na doot it'd be comfortin' to have a guid
weef to care for ye; but they're an awfu' trooble, Ralph, women
is,--an awfu' trooble."

"But you don't know, Uncle Billy; you ain't had no 'xperience."