“Why wouldn't you be a page, Billy?” asked Lina.
“'Cause I didn't hafto,” was the snappish reply.
“I bet my mama give her the finest present they is,” bragged the smaller boy; “I reckon it cost 'bout a million dollars.”
“Mother gave her a handsome cut-glass vase,” said Lina.
“It looks like Doctor Sanford would've give Miss Cecilia those twinses for a wedding present,” said Frances.
“Who is that little boy sitting on your porch, Jimmy?” asked Lina, noticing for the first time a lonely-looking child.
“That's Leon Tipton, Aunt Ella's little boy. He just come out from Memphis to spend the day with me and I'll be awful glad when he goes home; he's 'bout the stuck-up-est kid they is, and skeery? He's 'bout the 'fraidest young un ever you see. And look at him now? Wears long curls like a girl and don't want to never get his clean clo'es dirty.”
“I think he's a beautiful little boy,” championed Lina. “Call him over here, Jimmy.”
“Naw, I don't want to. You all'll like him a heap better over there; he's one o' these-here kids what the furder you get 'way from 'em, the better you like 'em.”
“He sho' do look lonesome,” said Billy; “'vite him over, Jimmy.”