you gimme a baseball bat? I already got a ball what Admiral
Farragut gimme. An' I ain't agoin' to be no sissy neither. Lina an'
Frances plays dolls, me an' Jimmy--" he stopped in sudden confusion.

"Lina and Frances and James!" exclaimed his aunt. "What do you know
about them, William?"

The child's face flushed. "I seen 'em this mornin'," he acknowledged.

Miss Minerva put a hand on either shoulder der and looked straight into
his eyes.

"William, who started that sprinkling this morning?" she questioned,
sharply.

Billy flushed guiltily and lowered his eyelids; but only for an instant.
Quickly recovering his composure he returned her gaze steadily and
ignored her question.

"I see yo' beau too, Aunt Minerva," he remarked tranquilly.

It was Miss Minerva this time who lost her composure, for her thin,
sallow face became perfectly crimson.

"My beau?" she asked confusedly. "Who put that nonsense into your head?"

"Jimmy show him to me," he replied jauntily, once more master of the
situation and in full realization of the fact. "Why don't you marry him,
Aunt Minerva, so's he could live right here with us? An' I could learn
him how to churn. I s'pec' he 'd make a beautiful churner. He sho' is a
pretty little fat man," he continued flatteringly. "An' dress? That beau
was jest dressed plumb up to the top notch. I sho' would marry him if
I's you an' not turn up my nose at him 'cause he wears pants, an' you
can learn him how to talk properer'n what he do an' I betcher he'd jest
nachelly take to a broom, an' I s'pec' he ain't got nobody 'tall to show
him how to sew. An' y' all could get the doctor to fetch you a little
baby so he wouldn't hafter play with no doll. I sho' wisht we had him
here," ended a selfish Billy, "he could save me a lot of steps. An'
I sho' would like to hear 'bout all them Injuns an' Yankees what he's
killed."

Billy's aunt was visibly embarrassed.

The persistent admiration of this, her one lover, had been pleasing to
her, yet she had never been willing to sacrifice her independence for
the cares and trials of matrimony. The existing state of affairs between
the two was known to every one in the small town, but such was Miss
Minerva's dignified aloofness that Billy was the first person who had
ever dared to broach the subject to her.

"Sit down here, William," she commanded, "and I will read to you."

"Tell me a tale," he said, looking up at her with his bright, sweet
smile. The doll lay