It was such fun to hear him thump the pulpit when he got excited ; and when he got more excited still he would lean over the pulpit , his face all white , and talk so low and solemn that it would just send the most gorgeous thrills through you . Dick came to Owlwood -- that 's our place ; I hate these explanations -- quite a lot , even before Aunt Tommy came . He and Father were chums ; they had been in college together and Father said Dick was the best football player he ever knew . Jill and I soon got acquainted with him and this was another uncanny thing . We had never thought it possible to get acquainted with a minister . Jill said she did n't think it proper for a real live minister to be so chummy . But then Jill was a little jealous because Dick and I , being both men ; were better friends than he and she could be . 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 XXXXX she talked to us just as if we were grown up .
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