I knew Uncle Dick 's outward history as the Bayside people knew it . It was not a very eventful one . He had lost his father in boyhood ; before that there had been some idea of Dick 's going to college . After his father 's death he seemed quietly to have put all such hopes away and settled down to look after the farm and take care of his invalid stepmother . This woman , as I learned from others , but never from Uncle Dick , had been a peevish , fretful , exacting creature , and for nearly thirty years Uncle Dick had been a very slave to her whims and caprices . `` Nobody knows what he had to put up with , for he never complained , '' Mrs. Lindsay , my landlady , told me . `` She was out of her mind once and she was liable to go out of it again if she was crossed in anything . He was that good and patient with her . She was dreadful fond of him too , for all she did almost worry his life out . No doubt she was the reason he never married . He could n't leave her and he knew no woman would go in there . Uncle Dick never courted anyone , unless it was Rose Lawrence . She was a cousin of my man 's . I 've heard he had a kindness for her ; it was years ago , before I came to Bayside . But anyway , nothing came of it . Her father 's health failed and he had to go out to California . Rose had to go with him , her mother being dead , and that was the end of Uncle Dick 's love affair . '' But that was not the end of it , as I discovered when Uncle Dick gave me his confidence . One evening I went over and , piloted by the sound of shrieks and laughter , found Uncle Dick careering about the garden , pursued by half a dozen schoolgirls who were pelting him with overblown roses . At sight of the master my pupils instantly became prim and demure and , gathering up their flowery spoil , they beat a hasty retreat down the lane .
`` Those little girls are very sweet , '' said XXXXX Dick abruptly .
Uncle care cousin creature laughter man sight sound woman years