"Wa'al! Wa'al! That's too dum'd bad! Why on earth--why, you must be _hungry_! Wa'al, you won't have to eat no salt herrin' to-day, because Polly 'n I are expectin' ye to dinner." Two or three times during the conversation David had gone to the window overlooking his lawn and looked out with a general air of observing the weather, and at this point he did so again, coming back to his seat with a look of satisfaction, for which there was, to John, no obvious reason.
He sat for a moment without speaking, and then, looking at his watch, said: "Wa'al, dinner 's at one o'clock, an' Polly's a great one fer bein' on time.

Guess I'll go out an' have another look at that pesky colt.

You better go over to the house 'bout quarter to one, an' you c'n make your t'ilet over there.

I'm 'fraid if you go over to the Eagle it'll spoil your appetite.

She'd think it might, anyway." So David departed to see the colt, and John got out some of the books and busied himself with them until the time to present himself at David's house..