“What?”
“We ought to do something!”
“Chop Aunt Alish into little shnipsh of bitsh—datsh what I fink would be nysh.”
“That would be dreadful naughty,” said Budge, “after we’ve bothered her so! We ought to do something good, just like big folks when they’ve been bad.”
“What doezh big folks do?”
“Well, they read the Bible an’ go to church. But you an’ me can’t go to church, ’cause ’tain’t Sunday, an’ we ain’t got no Bible, an’ we wouldn’t know how to read it if we had.”
“Den don’t letsh do noffin’ but be awful mad,” said the unrepentant Toddie. “I’ll tell you what we can do. Let’s do like dat Maggydalen dat mamma’s got a picture of, and dat was bad an’ got sorry; letsh look awful doleful and cwosh. See me.”
Toddie apparently gave an illustration of what he thought the proper penitential countenance and attitude, for Budge exclaimed:
“I don’t think that would look nice at all. It makes you look like a dead puppy-dog with his head turned to one side. I’ll tell you what; we can’t read Bibles like big folks, but we can tell stories out of the Bible, an’ that’ bein’ just as good as if we read ’em.”
“Oh, yes,” said Toddie, repenting at once. “Letsh! I wantsh to be good just awful.”