"Oh, you are, eh? Well, now, are you Tom's boy, or Ed's?"
"Tomth's boy. Uncle Ed heth got a little—"
"Ed got a boy?"
"Yeth, thir—a lil baby. Aunt Agg letth me hold 'im."
"Agg! Is that her name?"
"Tha'th what Uncle Ed callth her."
The man's head fell, and it was a long time before he asked his next question.
"How is she anyhow?"
"Purty well," piped the boy, with a prolongation of the last words into a kind of chirp. "She'th been thick, though," he added.
"Been sick? How long?"