He looks as if he were part of the horse.

He's a handsome brat." "Except for calling him names, which is a purely masculine way of showing affection, you speak of him almost as if you were his mother," she observed.
"Well, I am, almost," replied Sam, studying the matter gravely.

"I have been his mother, and his father, and his brother, too, for a great many years; and I will say that he's a credit to his family." "Meaning just you ?" she ventured.
"Yes, we're all we have; just yet, at least." This quite soberly.
"He must talk of getting married," she guessed, with a quick intuition that when this happened it would be a blow to Sam.
"Oh, no," he immediately corrected her.

"He isn't quite old enough to think of it seriously as yet.

I expect to be married long before he is." Miss Stevens felt a rigid aloofness creeping over her, and, having a very wholesome sense of humor, smiled as she recognized the feeling in herself.
"I should think you'd spend your vacation where the girl is," she observed.