"Toddie," said I, "do you love your Uncle Harry?"
"Esh, I do love you."
"Then tell me how that ridiculous song comforts you?"
"Makes me feel good, an' all nicey," replied Toddie.
"Wouldn't you feel just as good if I sang, 'Plunged in a gulf of dark despair'?"
"No, don't like dokdishpairs; if a dokdishpair done anyfing to me, I'd knock it right down dead."
With this extremely lucid remark, our conversation on this particular subject ended; but I wondered, during a few uneasy moments, whether the temporary mental aberration which had once afflicted Helen's grandfather and mine was not reappearing in this, his youngest descendant. My wondering was cut short by Budge, who remarked, in a confidential tone:—
TODDIE INVESTIGATING A HORNET'S NEST