With the exception of having the runners turned at a factory and iron-bound at a smithy, he had completed it alone with great care, even to staining it a beautiful cherry colour, and fitting white sheepskins into the bed.

We had all watched him and been so proud of it, and now Leon was sneering at it.

He might just as well have undertaken to laugh at father's wedding suit or to make fun of "Clark's Commentaries." Laddie appealed to mother: "Do you think I'd better not ask her ?" He spoke with an effort.
"Laddie, that is the first time I ever heard you propose to do any one an injustice," she said.
"I don't see how," said Laddie.
"It isn't giving the Princess any chance at all," replied mother "You've just said that she has seemed pleased to accompany you before, now you are proposing to cut her out of what promises to be the most delightful evening of the winter, without even giving her the chance to say whether she'd go with you or not.

Has she ever made you feel that anything you offered her or wanted to do for her was not good enough ?" "Never!" exclaimed Laddie fervently.
"Until she does, then, do you think it would be quite manly and honourable to make decisions for her?
You say you never thought of anything except a pleasant time with her; possibly she feels the same.
Unless she changes, I would scarcely let a boy's foolish tongue disturb her pleasure.

Moreover, as to the matter of wealth, your father may be as rich as hers; but they have one, we have many.