"Do you plead guilty, Cousin Ronald?" queried Evelyn, giving him a look of amusement.
"Well, now, you should not be too curious, Cousin Eva," was the non-committal reply.
"Is she too curious?" asked Ned. "Don't you think, Cousin Ronald, that it's all right for her to want to know what has made little Mary talk so well to-night?"
"Of course it is," little Mary seemed to say. "And I hope to talk a good deal while my papa is with us."
"Yes, I hope you will," said Ned. "I think he'll help you about it. Don't you wish you'd been climbing those mountains along with him?"
"No, Uncle Ned; it was nicer to be with mamma in the village."
Ned laughed at that, and turning to the other baby, asked: "How was it with you, Ray? Didn't you want to go along with the big folks?"
"No; you ain't one of the big folks, are you?" Ray seemed to reply; and Ned colored, as there was a general laugh from those present.
"A good deal bigger and older than you are," was his rather ungracious rejoinder.
"Don't be vexed with my baby boy, little brother," said Lucilla; "you know he didn't say that of himself. Somebody put the words into his mouth, or, to speak more literally, caused them to seem to come from his tongue, though he does not know how to talk at all."