Read "The Cheerful Smugglers" by Ellis Parker Butler online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
There was a train from the city at 6: 02, and Tom was not likely to be home on one earlier. At 5: 48 Kitty and Billy and Mrs. Fenelby were sitting on the porch, and Bobberts was lying in a tilted-back rocking chair, behaving himself. It was a calm and peaceful suburban scene -- the stillness and the loneliness and the mosquitoes were all present. It was the idle time when no one cares whether time flies or halts. Mrs. Fenelby had the table set and the cold dinner ready; Kitty was primped; and Billy should have had nothing in the world to do, but he had been opening and closing his watch every minute for the last half hour. He was uneasy. At 5: 48 he arose and stretched out his arms.
"I guess," he said as lazily as he could; "I guess I'll walk down and meet Tom. I haven't been out much to-day."