He taught me to skate that winter and fence with canes and do long division . I could never understand long division before Dick came , although I was away on in fractions . Jill has just been in and says I ought to explain that Dick 's name was n't Dick . I do wish Jill would mind her own business . Of course it was n't . His real name was the Reverend Stephen Richmond , but Jill and I always called him Dick behind his back ; it seemed so jolly and venturesome , somehow , to speak of a minister like that . Only we had to be careful not to let Father and Mother hear us . Mother would n't even let Father call Dick `` Stephen '' ; she said it would set a bad example of familiarity to the children . Mother is an old darling . She wo n't believe we 're half as bad as we are . Well , early in May comes Aunt Tommy . I must explain who Aunt Tommy is or Jill will be at me again . She is Father 's youngest sister and her real name is Bertha Gordon , but Father has always called her Tommy and she likes it . Jill and I had never seen Aunt Tommy before , but we took to her from the start because she was so pretty and because she talked to us just as if we were grown up . She called Jill Elizabeth , and Jill would adore a Hottentot who called her Elizabeth . Aunt Tommy is the prettiest girl I ever saw . If Jill is half as good-looking when she gets to be twenty -- she 's only ten now , same age as I am , we 're twins -- I shall be proud of her for a sister . Aunt Tommy is all white and dimpled . She has curly red hair and big jolly brown eyes and scrumptious freckles . I do like freckles in a girl , although Jill goes wild if she thinks she has one on her nose .
When we talked XXXXX writing this story Jill said I was n't to say that Aunt Tommy had freckles because it would n't sound romantic .
If although as at before for from in of to