Poor father , he must be dreadfully lonesome without me ; but you see he has nobody but a housekeeper now and he thinks housekeepers are no good to bring up little boys , especially when he has to be away from home so much on business . Grandmothers are better , next to mothers . Someday , when I 'm brought up , I 'll go back to father and we 're never going to be parted again . '' Paul had talked so much to Anne about his mother and father that she felt as if she had known them . She thought his mother must have been very like what he was himself , in temperament and disposition ; and she had an idea that Stephen Irving was a rather reserved man with a deep and tender nature which he kept hidden scrupulously from the world . `` Father 's not very easy to get acquainted with , '' Paul had said once . `` I never got really acquainted with him until after my little mother died . But he 's splendid when you do get to know him . I love him the best in all the world , and Grandma Irving next , and then you , teacher . I 'd love you next to father if it was n't my DUTY to love Grandma Irving best , because she 's doing so much for me . YOU know , teacher . I wish she would leave the lamp in my room till I go to sleep , though . She takes it right out as soon as she tucks me up because she says I must n't be a coward . I 'm NOT scared , but I 'd RATHER have the light . My little mother used always to sit beside me and hold my hand till I went to sleep . I expect she spoiled me . Mothers do sometimes , you know . '' No , Anne did not know this , although she might imagine it . She thought sadly of HER `` little mother , '' the mother who had thought her so `` perfectly beautiful '' and who had died so long ago and was buried beside her boyish husband in that unvisited grave far away . Anne could not remember her mother and for this reason she almost envied Paul .
`` My birthday is next week , '' said Paul , as they walked up the long red hill , basking in the June sunshine , `` and father wrote me XXXXX he is sending me something that he thinks I 'll like better than anything else he could send .
although as because beside from of that till with without