his seemed to tickle the teacher mightily, an' so he laughed an' told
him he was goin' to give him rope enough to hang hisself now, an' then
he dared him to show him any two an' two thet didn't make fo', and Sonny
says, says he, "Heap o' two an' twos don't make four, 'cause they're
kep' sep'rate," says he.

"An' then," says he, "I don't want my two billy-goats harnessed up with
nobody else's two billys to make fo' billys."

"But," says the teacher, "suppose I _was_ to harness up yo' two goats
with Tom Deems's two, there'd be fo' goats, I reckon, whether you wanted
'em there or not."

"No they wouldn't," says Sonny. "They wouldn't be but two. 'T wouldn't
take my team more 'n half a minute to butt the life out o' Tom's team."

An' with that little Tommy Deems, why, he commenced to cry, an' 'stid o'
punishin' him for bein' sech a cry-baby, what did the teacher do but
give Sonny another check, for castin' slurs on Tommy's animals, an'
gettin' Tommy's feelin's hurted! Which I ain't a-sayin' it on account o'
Sonny bein' my boy, but it seems to me was a mighty unfair advantage.

No boy's feelin's ain't got no right to be that tender--an' a goat is
the last thing on earth thet could be injured by a word of mouth.

Sonny's pets an' beasts has made a heap o' commotion in school one way
an' another, somehow. Ef 't ain't his goats it's somethin' else.

Sir! Sonny's pets? Oh, they're all sorts. He ain't no ways partic'lar
thess so a thing is po' an' miser'ble enough. That's about all he seems
to require of anything.

He don't never go to school hardly 'thout a garter-snake or two or a
lizard or a toad-frog somewheres about him. He's got some o' the little
girls at school that nervous thet if he thess shakes his little sleeve
at 'em they'll squeal, not knowin' what sort o' live critter'll jump out
of it.

Most of his pets is things he's got by their bein' hurted some way.

One of his toad-frogs is blind of a eye. Sonny rescued him from the old
red rooster one day after he had nearly pecked him to death, an' he had
him hoppin' round the kitchen for about a week with one eye bandaged up.

When a hurted critter gits good an' strong he gen'ally turns it loose
ag'in; but ef it stays puny, why he reg'lar 'dopts it an' names it
Jones. That's thess a little notion o' his, namin' his pets the family
name.

The most outlandish thing he ever 'dopted, to my mind, is that old
yaller cat. That was a miser'ble low-down stray cat thet h