he anticipated Phil’s reaction to such a thing and it struck him as intolerable that this innocent bit of handiwork would certainly bring down on her Phil’s hooting laughter — if not to her face, then in the bunkhouse, the sort of tearing, hooting laughter Phil had turned on him one Christmas not so long ago when he, to please his mother, had put on over his clothes a dressing gown of blue silk and funny slippers to match — her Christmas gift to him.
