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Title: Sonny, A Christmas Guest

Author: Ruth McEnery Stuart

Release Date: February 14, 2004 [EBook #11084]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: "I reckon the thing sort o' got started last summer."]

SONNY, A CHRISTMAS GUEST

BY RUTH McENERY STUART

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY FANNY Y. CORY

1911

TO MY SON STIRLING McENERY STUART

CONTENTS

A Christmas Guest

The Boy

Sonny's Christenin'

Sonny's Schoolin'

Sonny's Diploma

Sonny "Keepin' Company"

Weddin' Presents

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

"I reckon the thing sort o' got started last summer"

"Seem to me _he_ favors her a little thess aroun' the mouth"

"Quick ez he see the clock, he come thoo"

"She does make 'im _so_ contented an' happy"

"Name this child"

"An' then Sonny, seein' it all over, he come down"

"He was watchin' a bird-nest on the way to that school"

"He had been playin' out o' doors bare-feeted"

"Any question he missed was to be passed on to them thet had been
grad'jatin' so fast"

"'This orange is the earth, an' this here apple is the sun'"

"What could be sweeter 'n little Mary Elizabeth?"

"When I set here by myself on this po'ch so much these days an' think"

"Seem like a person don't no mo''n realize he's a descendant befo' he's
a' ancestor"

SONNY

A CHRISTMAS GUEST

[Illustration: 'B']

Boy, you say, doctor? An' she don't know it yet? Then what 're you
tellin' _me_ for? No, sir--take it away. I don't want to lay my eyes
on it till she's saw it--not if I _am_ its father. She's its _mother_,
I reckon!

Better lay it down somew'eres an' go to _her_--not there on the
rockin'-cheer, for somebody to set on--'n' not on the trunk, please.
That ain't none o' yo' ord'nary new-born bundles, to be dumped on a box
that'll maybe be opened sudden d'rec'ly for somethin' needed, an' be
dropped ag'in' the wa