"Why don't you say 'I' and 'I like,' Teddy?" said Percy. "You're getting such a big boy—four years old."
"Ted means I," persisted the small man. "I sall have all f'owers in Ted's garden, when me is big."
Percy was obliged to leave off what he was about—hunting for the slugs and caterpillars among the cabbages—in order that he might stand still and laugh.
"I'm afraid you wouldn't get the prize for grammar at our school, Ted," he said. But Ted only laughed too.
"I haven't learnt grammar," he said slowly and distinctly. "But please, Percy, Ted doesn't like cabbages. Come and see the f'owers. There was lots of c'ocodiles at that side. Ted likes zem best of all, but zem's done now."
"Crocodiles," said Percy. "What can crocodiles be?"
"Little f'owers with pointy leaves," said Ted. "P'raps it isn't c'ocodiles but somesing like coc—coco——"
"Crocuses perhaps," said Percy, as they made their way up to the house. "Yes, they're very pretty, but they're soon done."
"When I'm big I'll have a garden where they'll never be done," said Ted. "I'll have c'ocodiles and towslips for muzzer and—and——"
"Come in to breakfast, my man," called out his father from the dining-room. "What have you been about this morning?"