“You’ll have to call him Bill fur short.”
“That ud sound more like the Kayser than ever—I always call the Kayser Bill.”
“Then call him Willie.”
“That’s the young Kayser, and Tom when he fixed William said as he must never shorten it to Willie, ’cos there’s a kind of shell called Little Willie, and he says as if, when peace comes and he gits hoame, fulks wur to say, ’Here comes Little Willie,’ he’d chuck himself down in the lane and start digging himself in—Ha! ha!” and Thyrza laughed at the joke, and tickled the baby to make it laugh too, which it didn’t.
“Reckon he’s too young to laugh,” said Mrs. Beatup.
“He aun’t too young to cry.”
“We’re none of us too young fur that, nor too oald, nuther.”
Thyrza sighed gently—
“I’m unaccountable set on Tom’s coming fur the christening—and Passon’s been wanting to christen him; he asked me at the churching. I thought maybe Tom cud git leave to see his baby christened, but seemingly he can’t.”