`` Do you REALLY think so , my angel ? '' inquired Dan , in honey-sweet tones . `` Go on . Remember your second resolution , '' I whispered to the Story Girl , who was stalking along with an outraged expression . The Story Girl swallowed something and went on . `` Cousin Ebenezer had a horror of borrowing . He thought it was simply a dreadful disgrace to borrow ANYTHING . Well , you know he and Cousin Mattie used to live in Carlisle , where the Rays now live . This was when Grandfather King was alive . One day Cousin Ebenezer came up the hill and into the kitchen where all the family were . Uncle Roger said he looked as if he had been stealing sheep . He sat for a whole hour in the kitchen and hardly spoke a word , but just looked miserable . At last he got up and said in a desperate sort of way , ` Uncle Abraham , can I speak with you in private for a minute ? ' ` Oh , certainly , ' said grandfather , and took him into the parlour . Cousin Ebenezer shut the door , looked all around him and then said imploringly , ` MORE PRIVATE STILL . ' So grandfather took him into the spare room and shut that door . He was getting frightened . He thought something terrible must have happened Cousin Ebenezer . Cousin Ebenezer came right up to grandfather , took hold of the lapel of his coat , and said in a whisper , ` Uncle Abraham , CAN -- YOU -- LEND -- ME -- AN -- AXE ? ' '' `` He need n't have made such a mystery about it , '' said Cecily , who had missed the point entirely , and could n't see why the rest of us were laughing .
But Cecily was such a darling that we did not mind her lack of a sense XXXXX humour .
At about around for into of on that to with