“I should think so,” said Budge. “If I could hop like a grasshopper, I could jump faster than any boy in the kindergarten, an’ if I could sting like a hornet, I could wallop any boy in town.”
“Does they adzamine big animals, too?” asked Toddie.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Burton. “One of them has been away out West among the dreadful Indians, just to find out what horses were like a good many years ago.”
“If I find out all ’bout horsesh,” said Toddie, “will everybody like me?”
“Very likely,” said Mrs. Burton.
“Then I’m goin’ to,” said Toddie, sliding out of his aunt’s lap.
“Never mind about it now, dear,” said Mrs. Burton. “We are going to see mamma and baby now. Go and dress yourselves neatly, boys.”
Both children started, and Mrs. Burton, who was already prepared for her trip, opened a novel, first giving herself credit for having turned at least one perverted faculty of Toddie’s into its heaven-ordained channel.
“Another triumph to report to my husband,” said she, with a fine air of exultation, as she opened her novel. “And yet,” she continued, absent-mindedly, laying the book down again, “I believe I have found no occasion on which to report yesterday’s victories!”
The boys were slow to appear; but when they came down-stairs they presented so creditable an appearance as to call for a special compliment from their aunt. On their way to their mamma’s house they seemed preoccupied, and they sought frequent occasions to whisper to each other.