't take_. How 'bout that?"

An' I didn't try to explain no further. What was the use? Wife, she had
drawed a stool close-t up to my knee, an' set there sortin' out the
little yaller rings ez they 'd dry out on his head, an' when he said
that I thess looked at her an' we both looked at him, an' says I,
"Wife," says I, "ef they's anything in heavenly looks an' behavior, I
b'lieve that christenin' is started to take on him a'ready."

An' I b'lieve it had.

SONNY'S SCHOOLIN'

[Illustration: 'S']

Well, sir, we're tryin' to edjercate him--good ez we can. Th' ain't
never been a edjercational advantage come in reach of us but we've give
it to him. Of co'se he's all we've got, that one boy is, an' wife an'
me, why, we feel the same way about it.

They's three schools in the county, not countin' the niggers', an' we
send him to all three.

Sir? Oh, yas, sir; he b'longs to all three schools--to fo' for that
matter, countin' the home school.

You see, Sonny he's purty ticklish to handle, an' a person has to know
thess how to tackle him. Even wife an' me, thet's been knowin' him
f'om the beginnin', not only knowin' his traits, but how he come by
'em,--though some is hard to trace to their so'ces,--why, sir, even
we have to study sometimes to keep in with him, an' of co'se a
teacher--why, it's thess hit an' miss whether he'll take the right tack
with him or not; an' sometimes one teacher'll strike it one day, an'
another nex' day; so by payin' schoolin' for him right along in all
three, why, of co'se, ef he don't feel like goin' to one, why, he'll
go to another.

Once-t in a while he'll git out with the whole of 'em, an' that was
how wife come to open the home school for him. She was determined his
edjercation shouldn't be interrupted ef she could help it. She don't
encour'ge him much to go to her school, though, 'cause it interrupts her
in her housekeepin' consider'ble, an' she's had extry quilt-patchin' on
hand ever since he come. She's patchin' him a set 'ginst the time he'll
marry.

'An' then I reckon he frets her a good deal in school. Somehow, seems
like he thess picks up enough in the other schools to be able to
conterdic' her ways o' teachin'.

F' instance, in addin' up a colume o' figgers, ef she comes to a
aught--which some calls 'em naughts--she'll say, "Aught's a aught," an'
Sonny ain't been learned to say it that a-way; an' so maybe when she
says, "Aught's a aught," he'll say, "Who said it wasn't!"