bout like that!"

Van der Welcke closed his eyes blissfully. The scent of the steaming
pines floated on the summery air; the needles glistened and gave off
their fragrance. And Van der Welcke fell asleep, with his head in his
son's lap.

"Dear old Father!" thought Addie; and he stroked his father's round,
curly head.

He looked down at him and, so as not to disturb his father's sleep, sat
motionless, with his back against a tree. He looked down at him: dear
old Father!... But he was not old, his father: he was young.... And, all
at once, it seemed to Addie that he saw it for the first time: his
father was young. And he thought to himself how strange it was that,
when you are young yourself, you call everybody old: Granny van Lowe and
Grandpapa and Grandmamma van der Welcke were old; and Uncle Ruyvenaer
and Auntie were old; and the two old aunts, Auntie Rine and Auntie Tine,
were very old, regular old mummies. But Papa, Papa was young. Why, he
was only a year or two older than Uncle Paul, who was always the young
man, the dandy, with his exquisite coats and beautiful ties. And Papa
looked younger than Uncle Paul, Papa certainly looked younger.... Addie
bent over him, while he slept. He lay quietly sleeping, with his face
three-quarters turned on Addie's lap. And Addie, seeing for the first
time that Papa was young, studied his face. Oh, how young Papa was: he
was younger than Mamma! He looked much younger; he looked almost like an
elder brother of Addie's. His hair, thinning ever so little over the
temples, was still quite brown: soft, short, curly brown hair, almost
close-cropped, but curling just a little, like his own. His forehead was
white, like that of a statue, without a wrinkle, had kept white under
the peak of his cycling-cap; and his cheeks, a little blue from shaving,
were healthily bronzed. His eyelids were young, his lids now closed in
sleep; his straight nose was young and his mouth, with the short, thick,
curly moustache above it. His frame was young; and on Addie's knees lay
his young hands, small, broad and dainty, with carefully-tended nails:
Addie looked at his own finger-nails, boy's nails, which were torn
rather than cut.... How strange that Papa should be so young! He noticed
it for the first time. And for the first time he felt himself to have
grown older, no longer quite a child, a boy still, but grown into a
young man, even though he was only fourteen.... Yes, when you were a
child, a real chi