“Or to—give up shouting and whistling.”
Williams crammed two more sweets into his mouth and shook his head very firmly.
“Crumbs, no!” he ejaculated indistinctly.
“Or to be perlite.”
“Perlite?”
“Yes. ‘Please’ and ‘thank you,’ and ‘if you don’t mind me sayin’ so,’ and ‘if you excuse me contradictin’ of you,’ and ‘can I do anything for you?’ and such like.”
William was struck with this.
“Yes, I might be that,” he said. He straightened his collar and stood up. “Yes, I might try bein’ that. How long has it to go on, though?”
“Not long,” said Mr. Moss. “Only the first day gen’rally. Folks generally give ’em up after that.”
“What’s yours?” said William, putting four sweets into his mouth as he spoke.