They 're all as queer as Dick 's hat-band . '' `` Father , you should n't talk so about your neighbours , '' said his wife rebukingly . `` Well now , Mother , you know they are , if you 'd only speak up honest . But you 're like old Aunt Nancy Scott , you never say anything uncharitable except in the way of business . You know the Gordons ai n't like other people and never were and never will be . They 're about the only queer folks we have in Lindsay , Master , except old Peter Cook , who keeps twenty-five cats . Lord , Master , think of it ! What chanct would a poor mouse have ? None of the rest of us are queer , leastwise , we hai n't found it out if we are . But , then , we 're mighty uninteresting , I 'm bound to admit that . '' `` Where do the Gordons live ? '' asked Eric , who had grown used to holding fast to a given point of inquiry through all the bewildering mazes of old Robert 's conversation . `` Away up yander , half a mile in from Radnor road , with a thick spruce wood atween them and all the rest of the world . They never go away anywheres , except to church -- they never miss that -- and nobody goes there . There 's just old Thomas , and his sister Janet , and a niece of theirs , and this here Neil we 've been talking about . They 're a queer , dour , cranky lot , and I WILL say it , Mother . There , give your old man a cup of tea and never mind the way his tongue runs on . Speaking of tea , do you know Mrs. Adam Palmer and Mrs. Jim Martin took tea together at Foster Reid 's last Wednesday afternoon ? '' `` No , why , I thought they were on bad terms , '' said Mrs. Williamson , betraying a little feminine curiosity . `` So they are , so they are .
But they both happened to visit Mrs. Foster the same afternoon and neither would leave because that would be knuckling down XXXXX the other .
So about at if in like of on to up