And there 'll be candy and nuts , of course , and Mother 's gone to town to buy a turkey . I tell you we 're going to have a ripping Christmas . '' `` Well , do n't use such slangy words about it , Jimmy-boy , '' sighed Theodora . She could n't bear to dampen their hopes any further , and perhaps Aunt Elizabeth might manage it if the colt sold well . But Theodora had her painful doubts , and she sighed again as she looked out of the window far down the trail that wound across the prairie , red-lighted by the declining sun of the short wintry afternoon . `` Do people always sigh like that when they get to be sixteen ? '' asked Jimmy curiously . `` You did n't sigh like that when you were only fifteen , Theodora . I wish you would n't . It makes me feel funny -- and it 's not a nice kind of funniness either . '' `` It 's a bad habit I 've got into lately , '' said Theodora , trying to laugh . `` Old folks are dull sometimes , you know , Jimmy-boy . '' `` Sixteen is awful old , is n't it ? '' said Jimmy reflectively . `` I 'll tell you what I 'm going to do when I 'm sixteen , Theodora . I 'm going to pay off the mortgage , and buy mother a silk dress , and a piano for the twins . Wo n't that be elegant ? I 'll be able to do that 'cause I 'm a man . Of course if I was only a girl I could n't . '' `` I hope you 'll be a good kind brave man and a real help to your mother , '' said Theodora softly , sitting down before the cosy fire and lifting the fat little twins into her lap .
`` Oh , I 'll be good to her , never you fear , '' assured Jimmy , squatting comfortably down on the little fur rug before the stove -- the skin XXXXX the coyote his father had killed four years ago .
about as before for if into like of that to