n
she'll hardly resk it ag'in, she's that skeert. He's been settin' on the
flo' there thess the way you see 'im now, with that clock in his lap,
all mornin'.

Of co'se it thess took him about ten minutes to bu'st all the little
things his gran'ma give him to play with, 'n' then he nachelly called
for the clock; 'n' when she wasn't forthcomin' _immejate_, why, he thess
stiffened out in a spell.

Of co'se we put the timepiece into his hands quick ez we could onclinch
'em, an' sent for you. But quick ez he see the clock, he come thoo. But
you was already gone for, then.

His gran'ma she got considerable fretted because he's broke off the long
han' o' the clock; but I don't see much out o' the way about that. Ef a
person thess remembers thet the long han' is the short han'--why, 't
ain't no trouble.

An' she does make 'im _so_ contented an' happy! Thess look at his face,
now! What is the face-vally of a clock, I like to know, compared to
that?

[Illustration: "Quick ez he see the clock, he come thoo."]

But of co'se the ol' lady she's gettin' on in years, and then she's
my wife's mother, which makes her my _di_rec' mother-in-law; an' so
I'm slow to conterdic' anything she says, an' I guess her idees o'
regulatin' childern--not to say clocks--is sort o' diff'rent to wife's
an' mine. She goes in for reg'lar dis_cip_line, same ez she got an'
survived in her day; an' of co'se, ez Sonny come to her ez gran'son the
same day he was born to us ez plain son, we never like to lift our
voices ag'in anything she says.

She loves him thess ez well ez we do, only on a diff'rent plan. She give
him the only spankin' he's ever had--an' the only silver cup.

Even wife an' me we had diff'rent idees on the subjec' o' Sonny's
raisin'; but somehow, in all our ca'culations, we never seemed to
realize that _he'd_ have idees.

Why, that two-year-old boy settin' there regulatin' that clock warn't no
mo' 'n to say a pink spot on the piller 'fo' he commenced to set fo'th
his idees, and he ain't never backed down on no principle thet he set
fo'th, to this day.

For example, wife an' me, why, we argued back an' fo'th consider'ble on
the subjec' of his meal-hours, ez you might say, she contendin' for
promiskyus refreshment an' me for schedule time.

This, of co'se, was thess _proj_eckin' 'fo' the new boa'der ac-chilly
arrived, He not bein' here yet, we didn't have much to do _but_
speculate about him. Lookin' back'ards now, it seems to