“No, I’m too young; don’t touch me, cousins,” the baby seemed to say.
“Oh, it can talk! It can talk!” cried Alie Leland.
“The same way that the tee-tees did,” laughed her brother Edward.
“But Cousin Ronald isn’t here,” exclaimed several child voices.
“No; but Cousin Max is, and he is a ventriloquist, too,” returned Edward, looking smilingly at the baby’s father.
“Well, now, Ned,” said Max, “do you really think my little girl is not capable of saying a few words for herself?”
“Oh, I daresay she will talk fast enough some of these days,” laughed the lad, “but I know babies don’t talk when they are hardly a week old.”
“Except when there’s a ventriloquist at hand,” said Eric.
“Brother Max,” exclaimed Ned, “I’m so glad you are a ventriloquist, because I hope you’ll make a good deal of fun for us, as Cousin Ronald does.”