The little boy sighed.
“Which you think is the fitteness name,” asked he, “Billy or William.”
“Billy, Billy,” enthusiastically came the reply.
“I like mens,” said William Green Hill, “I sho' wisht you could come and live right here with me and Aunt Minerva.”
“I wish so, too,” said the Major.
CHAPTER XV
BILLY, THE CREDULOUS
After the advent and disappearance of the exciting Mr. Jones, Miss Minerva, much to Billy's joy, had a telephone put in the house. He sat in the hall the day it was put in waiting for it to ring.
Jimmy, coming up on the front porch and through the half-open door and seeing him sitting there, rang the door bell just for a joke, ready to burst into a laugh when the other little boy turned around and saw who it was. Billy, however, in his eagerness mistook the ring for the telephone bell and joyfully climbed up on the chair, which he had stationed in readiness. He took down the receiver as he had seen Jimmy do in his home and, without once seeing that little boy standing a few feet from him, he yelled at the top of his lungs: