out crackin' a smile to these regular
gushers who laid it on so thick you'd 'most thought the youngster
himself would have turned over and run his tongue out at 'em.

"Oh, the dear, darling 'ittle cherub!" they'd squeal. "Isn't he simp-ly
the most won-der-ful baby you ev-er saw?"

And Vee would never blink an eye. In fact, she'd beam on 'em grateful,
and repeat to me afterwards what they'd said, like it was just a case of
the vote bein' made unanimous, as she knew it was bound to be all along.

Which wasn't a bit like any of the forty-seven varieties of Vee I
thought I was so well acquainted with. No. I'll admit she'd shown whims
and queer streaks now and then, and maybe a fault or so; but nothing
that had anything to do with any tendency of the ego to stick its elbows
out. Yet, when it comes to listenin' to flatterin' remarks about our son
and heir--well, no Broadway star readin' over what his press-agent had
smuggled into the dramatic notes had anything on her. She couldn't have
it handed to her too strong.

As for me, I guess I was in sort of a daze there for a week or so.
Gettin' to be a parent had been sprung on me so sudden that it was sort
of confusin'. I couldn't let on to be a judge of babies myself. I don't
know as I'd ever examined one real near to before, anyway--not such a
new one as this.

And, between me and you, when I did get a chance to size him up real
close once,--they'd all gone out of the room and left me standin' by the
crib,--I was kind of disappointed. Uh-huh. No use kiddin' yourself. I
couldn't see a thing wonderful about him, or where he was much different
from others I'd glanced at casual. Such a small party to have so much
fuss made over! Why, one of his hands wasn't much bigger'n a cat's paw.
And his face was so red and little and the nose so sketchy that it
didn't seem likely he'd ever amount to much. Here he'd had more'n a week
to grow in, and I couldn't notice any change at all.

Not that I was nutty enough to report any such thoughts. Hardly. I felt
kind of guilty at just havin' 'em in my head. How was it, I asked
myself, that I couldn't stand around with my hands clasped and my eyes
dimmed up, as a perfectly good parent should when he gazes at his first
and only chee-ild! Wasn't I human?

All the alibi I can put up is that I wasn't used to bein' a father.
Ain't there something in that? Just think, now. Why, I'd hardly got
used to bein' married. Here, only a little over a year ag