but yodrens companionship was thankfully more than enough to ease the pain , and over time theyd established a pattern of togetherness , a daily routine , which afforded them many shared pleasures such as eating breakfast together and talking silently while yonfi still slept , or sitting outside the hut near sundown to gaze at the beauty of the world , she with her knitting and he with some of the ( frankly , horrid ) wooden toys hed taken to whittling , and which he invariably inflicted on his students as gifts .