, they seem to hold it ag'in' me thet Sonny could step in at
the last moment an' take what their boy could n't git th'oo the trials
an' tribulations of a whole year o' bein' teached lessons at home an'
wrestled in prayer over.

I ain't got a thing ag'in' Enoch, not a thing--not even for makin' me
double my number o' candles. Mo' 'n that, I'd brighten up Sam's mind for
'im in a minute, ef I could.

I never was jealous-hearted. An' neither is Sonny.

He sent Sam a special invite to his gradj'atin' party, an' give him a
seat next to hisself so's he could say "Amen" to his blessin', thess
because he had missed gittin' his diplomy. Everybody there knowed why
he done it.

But talkin' about Sonny being "raised," I told Miss Phoebe thet we'd
_haf_ to stop sayin' it about _him_, right or wrong, ez a person can't
raise nothin' higher 'n what he is hisself, an Sonny's taller 'n either
wife or me, an' he ain't but sixteen. Ef we raised 'im partly, we must
'a' sent 'im up the rest o' the way. It's a pleasure to pass a little
joke with Miss Phoebe; she's got sech a good ear to ketch their p'ints.

But, come to growin', Sonny never asked nobody no odds. He thess stayed
stock-still ez long ez he found pleasure in bein' a little runt, an'
then he humped hisself an' shot up same ez a sparrer-grass stalk. It
gives me pleasure to look up to him the way I haf to.

Fact is, he always did require me to look _up_ to 'im, even when I
looked _down_ at 'im.

Yas, sir; ez I said, Sonny has commenced keepin'
company,--outspoke,--an' I can't say thet I'm opposed to it, though some
would say he was a little young, maybe. I know when I was his age I had
been in love sev'al times. Of co'se these first little puppy-dog loves,
why, th' ain't no partic'lar harm in 'em--less'n they're opposed.

An' we don't lay out to oppose Sonny--not in nothin' thet he'll
attemp'--after him bein' raised an' guided up to this age.

There goes that word "raisin'" agi'n.

He's been in love with his teacher, Miss Phoebe, most three years--an'
'cep'n' thet I had a sim'lar experience when I was sca'cely out o' the
cradle, why, I might 'a' took it mo' serious.

That sort o' fallin' in love, why, it comes same ez the measles or
the two-year-old teeth, an' th' ain't nothin' sweeter ef it's took
philosophical.

It's mighty hard, though, for parents, thet knows thess how recent a
child is, to reconcile the facts o' the case with sech things ez him
takin' notice to th