The strain in the house, the excitement of Winona, the periodic, furtive weeping of Mrs.Penniman, the detached, uplifted manner of the chief figure, all confirmed him in this impression.

Even Judge Penniman, who had been wont to speak of "them twins," now spoke of "that boy," meaning but the Wilbur twin.
By two o'clock of the momentous Saturday afternoon the tension was at its highest.

Merle, dressed in his Sunday clothes, trod squeakily in the new shoes, which were button shoes surpassing in elegance any he had hitherto worn.

As Dave Cowan had remarked, they were as good shoes as Whipple money would ever buy him.

And the new hat, firm of line and rich in texture, a hat such as no boy could possibly wear except on Sunday, unless he were a very rich boy, reposed on the centre table in the parlour.