`` I mostly lets them run the length of their tether but sometimes I has to pull them up , and then I does it with a jerk . Now , you can take your time about dressing , my dears , and I 'll go down and keep them in order , the mean scalawags . '' When we descended the stairs we found a smoking-hot breakfast on the table . Mr. Chapman was nowhere to be seen , and Mrs. Chapman was cutting bread with a sulky air . Mrs. Matilda Pitman was sitting in an armchair , knitting . She still wore her bonnet and her triumphant expression . `` Set right in , dears , and make a good breakfast , '' she said . `` We are not hungry , '' said Kate , almost pleadingly . `` I do n't think we can eat anything . And it 's time we were on the trail . Please excuse us and let us go on . '' Mrs. Matilda Pitman shook a knitting needle playfully at Kate . `` Sit down and take your breakfast , '' she commanded . `` Mrs. Matilda Pitman commands you . Everybody obeys Mrs. Matilda Pitman -- even Robert and Amelia . You must obey her too . '' We did obey her . We sat down and , such was the influence of her mesmeric eyes , we ate a tolerable breakfast . The obedient Amelia never spoke ; Mrs. Matilda Pitman did not speak either , but she knitted furiously and chuckled . When we had finished Mrs. Matilda Pitman rolled up her knitting .
`` Now , you can go if you want to , '' she said , `` but you do n't have XXXXX go .
Kate about at in of on right scalawags to with