"You came right up to me and leaned against my knee, not a bit afraid. I scolded and you looked up and smiled. You were very little then, seems to me you weren't more than a baby."
"Yes?"
"I slapped you on your cheek!"
"Whew! I don't believe it would have killed a mosquito."
"You were so grieved! You looked at me as though I had bruised your heart. Your mouth trembled and you hid your face in my lap and cried."
"And then you took me in your lap and petted me and told me about the three little pigs and washed me and got me into another dress without Mammy's knowing!"
"You can't remember, Tom!"
"Yes, I can."
"I don't believe you were as old as three."
"Well," meditatively, "if I don't remember that time I remembers heaps of others like it. You never went back on me."