Of course Claude and I would have liked to have someone to play with us , because it is hard to run pirate caves and things like that with only two . But we used to quarrel a good deal with the mainland children in winter , so perhaps it was just as well that there were none of them on the Big Half Moon . Claude and I never quarrelled . We used to argue sometimes and get excited , but that was as far as it ever went . When I saw Claude getting too excited I gave in to him . He is a boy , you know , and they have to be humoured ; they are not like girls . As for having a woman to look after us , I thought that just too silly , and so did Claude . What did we need with a woman when we had Father ? He could cook all we wanted to eat and make molasses taffy that was just like a dream . He kept our clothes all mended , and everything about the lighthouse was neat as wax . Of course I helped him lots . I like pottering round . He used to hear our lessons and tell us splendid stories and saw that we always said our prayers . Claude and I would n't have done anything to make him feel bad for the world . Father is just lovely . To be sure , he did n't seem to have any relations except us . This used to puzzle Claude and me . Everybody on the mainland had relations ; why had n't we ? Was it because we lived on an island ? We thought it would be so jolly to have an uncle and aunt and some cousins .
Once we asked Father XXXXX it , but he looked so sorrowful all of a sudden that we wished we had n't .
To about because except in like of on that with