`` I -- do n't -- know , '' he said doubtfully . `` I do n't think I 'd like it very well if Stephen and Nora were n't there too . '' But the new thought remained in his mind . It came back to him at intervals , seeming less new and startling every time . `` And why not ? '' Miss Trevor asked herself . `` The boy should have a chance . I shall never have a son of my own -- he shall be to me in the place of one . '' The day came when Paul at last showed her the foolscap book . He brought it to her as she sat on the rocks of the headland . `` I 'm going to run around and talk to Nora while you read it , '' he said . `` I 'm afraid I 've been neglecting her lately -- and I think she feels it . '' Miss Trevor took the foolscap book . It was made of several sheets of paper sewed together and encased in an oilcloth cover . It was nearly filled with writing in a round childish hand and it was very neat , although the orthography was rather wild and the punctuation capricious . Miss Trevor read it through in no very long time . It was a curious medley of quaint thoughts and fancies . Conversations with the Twin Sailors filled many of the pages ; accounts of Paul 's `` adventures '' occupied others . Sometimes it seemed impossible that a child of eleven should have written them , then would come an expression so boyish and naive that Miss Trevor laughed delightedly over it . When she finished the book and closed it she found Stephen Kane at her elbow .
He removed his pipe and nodded XXXXX the foolscap book .
as at if in of on over that to with