Thanks for reviewing! I don't think what the boys were saying really matters. Children can be incredibly mean to one another, particularly when you realize how thin-skinned they are. I can think of any number of things they could have said that would have upset him, all important to a child but not so at all to an adult, except insofar as they upset the kids.

And yes, it was very good for Luke that his uncle was a stolid, no-nonsense kind of guy.