“Oh, yes; well, you must know, Miss Tupper,” ran on Alexia, “that I really have the best baby in the whole world. He’s a perfect beauty to begin with, and he’s ever so many teeth, and he talks, and what do you suppose he was doing when I got home?—I only ran out to pay a few visits, you know.”
“I don’t know,” said Grace faintly, as Alexia waited for her to speak.
“Why, he was trying to brush his own hair,” said Mrs. Dodge. “Now, that blessed child must have known his hair didn’t look good. Bonny, that’s his nurse, lets him muss it up dreadfully, and so the poor dear was just doing it for himself.”
“I suppose she gave him the brush to play with,” said Grace, interested at once.
“Never mind how he got it,” cried Alexia, “he was brushing his hair. Now, I call that very smart indeed; I’m almost afraid to think what he will become, Miss Tupper, when he grows up. There isn’t anything that’ll be quite the thing for him.”
“I suppose he can be President of the United States,” said Grace.
“Oh, dear me, no!” cried Alexia hastily. “There have been twenty-four of them already. I want my boy to be something new, and ahead of other people. And just think, it won’t be but a little while before he’ll be in college, and then he’ll be through, and then I’m sure he’ll want to be something quite unusual; I’m sure he will.”
“What’s his name?” asked Grace, wishing she could see this wonderful baby.
“Algernon Rhys Dodge,” said Alexia; “isn’t it just a beautiful name? I wanted to call him after his father, ‘Pickering;’ but I knew it would be ‘Pick’ all the time to distinguish him, so I gave it up. Well, you’ll see him often, because we’re going to move out to Badgertown next week.”
“Are you?” cried Grace, “how nice!”