“Say, Bony, are you going to have a baby at your house?”
He got sort of red and didn't dare look at me. Then he began to cry, mad-like.
“I don't care!” he blubbered out. “If you tell anybody I'll lick you, I will, I don't care who you are! I'll—I'll shoot you. I'll kill you!” Scratch-Cat didn't laugh. She just said, “Oh!” So I knew that was it. So just then Mamie Little called out, “Oh, Georgie.” But I just hollered, “Aw, shut up!” So I said: “Aw, come on, Swatty, let's go up to the cave.”
Well, just then my sister came out of the house. She had on a clean dress, and she came hippety-hopping down the walk as happy as could be and happier. She came right down to where Swatty was teasing Mamie Little, and she said:
“Mamie! Mamie! What do you think? We're going to have a little new baby!”
Well, I got up and climbed over the fence and ran. I don't know how I ever got over a fence so quick—pickets and all—but I did, and I ran up the street with my hands over my ears. I knew Swatty knew and Mamie Little knew and that they were thinking: “Ho! Georgie is going to have a new baby at his house.” And I was trying to run away. When I came to the corner I dodged behind it, and stopped.
Almost right away Bony came and Swatty came right after him, and Scratch-Cat after Swatty, but we made her go back again. We didn't want any girls around at all. Swatty was almost as sore as me and Bony was. He just threw himself down on the grass and said, “Garsh!”
“Well, you don't need to go and blame me,” I said. “I ain't the only one. Bony's going to have one at his house, too.”
So then Swatty sat up.
“Aw, garsh!” he said. “You and Bony's always spoiling all our fun. I ought to have knowed what was the matter with him, and now you 'll be the same way. You bet I don't have no babies coming to my house, making everybody grouchy. But you and Bony don't care; you don't care how you spoil the fun.”