“N—n—n—o! I imagine not,” said Mrs. Burton, “because he was always good.”
“That don’t make no diffwelence,” said Toddie. “De better a little boy triesh to be, de more folks says ‘Don’t’ to him. So I guesh nobody had any time to say anyfing elsh at all to Jesus.”
“What did he do next?” asked Budge, as deeply interested as if he had not heard the same story many times before.
“He grew strong in body and spirit,” said Mrs. Burton, “and everybody loved him; but before he had time to do all that, an angel came and frightened his papa in a dream, and told him that the king of that country would kill little Jesus if he could find him. So Joseph and Mary, the mamma of the baby, got up in the middle of the night and started off to Egypt.”
“What did they do when they got there?” Budge asked.
“I don’t know,” said Mrs. Burton. “I suppose the papa worked hard for money to buy good food and comfortable resting-places for his wife and the baby; and I suppose the mamma walked about the fields, and picked pretty flowers for her baby to play with; and I suppose the baby cooed when his mamma gave them to him, and laughed and danced and played, and then got tired, and came and hid his little face in his mamma’s lap, and was taken into her arms and held ever so tight, and fell asleep, and that his mother looked into his face as if she would look through it, while she tried to find out what her baby would be and do when he grew up, and whether he would be taken away from her, while it seemed as if she couldn’t live at all without having him very closely pressed to her breast and——”
Mrs. Burton’s voice grew a little shaky and soon failed her entirely. Budge came in front of her, scrutinized her intently but with great sympathy also, rested his elbows on her knees, dropped his face into his own hands, looked up into her face, and said:
“Why, Aunt Alice, she was just like my mamma, wasn’t she? An’ I think you are just like both of ’em!”
Mrs. Burton took Budge into her arms, covered his face with kisses, and totally destroyed another chance of explaining the difference between the earthly and the heavenly to her pupils, while Toddie eyed the couple with evident disfavor, and said:
“I fink ’twould be nicer if you’d see if dinner was bein’ got ready, instead of stoppin’ tellin’ stories an’ huggin’ Budgie. My tummuk’ all gotted little again.”