`` What can have happened ? '' he said to himself . `` Uncle Tom and Aunt Sally ca n't be dead -- I 'd have seen their deaths in the paper if they was . And I 'd a-thought if they 'd moved away it 'd been printed too . They ca n't have been gone long -- that flower-bed must have been made up last spring . Well , this is a kind of setback for a fellow . Here I 've been tramping all the way from the station , a-thinking how good it would be to see Aunt Sally 's sweet old face again , and hear Uncle Tom 's laugh , and all I find is a boarded-up house going to seed . S'pose I might as well toddle over to Stetsons ' and inquire if they have n't disappeared , too . '' He went through the old firs back of the lot and across the field to a rather shabby house beyond . A cheery-faced woman answered his knock and looked at him in a puzzled fashion . `` Have you forgot me , Mrs. Stetson ? Do n't you remember Lovell Stevens and how you used to give him plum tarts when he 'd bring your turkeys home ? '' Mrs. Stetson caught both his hands in a hearty clasp . `` I guess I have n't forgotten ! '' she declared . `` Well , well , and you 're Lovell ! I think I ought to know your face , though you 've changed a lot . Fifteen years have made a big difference in you . Come right in . Pa , this is Lovell -- you mind Lovell , the boy Aunt Sally and Uncle Tom had for years ? ''
`` Reckon I do , '' drawled Jonah XXXXX with a friendly grin .
Lovell Sally Stetson Tom a-thinking clasp firs right tarts years