that the old man did not seem angry with him.
"I thought I'd like to come back here?" he offered.
He could not tell the effect of this on Beman. The old man got up and stood before the fire-place, while he seemed to consider something.
"Anybody ever offer to adopt you?" he asked.
The mildness of his tone gave still further encouragement to Peewee. "No, sir," he said.
Adoption, as a fact, was known to him, though not the complete particulars of the process. A person picked out the prettiest child in an institution, and certain formalities followed, which were vague to Peewee. Following that, the person said to the child, "Now you must call me 'mother,' or 'father.'"
"What would you think of that?" Beman questioned.
Peewee did not answer. He could not conceive of Beman's adopting him, and the old man seemed to read the beginning of that thought and hastened to forestall it.
"Not me," he offered. "Someone else."
