"Says May: 'I am a boy!
May is short for ...'"
"For what?" thinks Nancy, frowning impatiently at the word that will not come. Then she skips gaily on across the grass:
"Says May: 'I am a boy!
May is short for Marmaduke,
As all the world should know!
I taught the birds their trills and shakes,
No girl could whistle so!'
"So May the girl, and May the boy, they quarrel all day long;
While the flowers stop their budding, and the birds forget their song.
And God says: 'Now, to punish you, I'll hang out the new moon
And take and bundle both of you into the month of June.'"
"Of course, May is not short for Marmaduke," muses Nancy, "but that cannot be helped."
... On her couch on the lawn Edith opened her eyes and said: "Nancy? Where is Nancy?"
Valeria sprang up. "Is there anything you want, Edith dear?"
"No; I should like Nancy. I love to see her, and I am too lazy to run after her."
"I will call her," said Valeria.
At this unexpected reply Mrs. Avory raised eyes shining with gratitude to her daughter-in-law's face.
Valeria found her little girl declaiming verses to the trees in the orchard. She knelt down on the grass to fasten the small button-shoe, and said, without raising her face: "Nancy, you are to go to Edith; but, Nancy, you are not to kiss her."