Adams turned redder than usual, which is saying much.
“Ah—I don’t know nuthin’ about kids,” he confessed. “Catherwood—see what he can do.”
Catherwood also proved to be modest. After him Farnham and Lane waived their alphabetical privilege.
Moody, as nervous as a girl, approached the dumb little man on the floor, and twisting the corner of his coat, inquired in a trembling voice, “Does Bunny love old Goo-goo?”
The child looked up with a frightened little query in his eyes.
“I’d hate to scare him,” Moody added. “I don’t mind seein’ how he takes to Barney.”
“Yes, give Barney a show,” said Wooster.
Something had been happening to the cook. The tenseness had gone from his usually wiry little body; his eyes were milder; a curve was softening his mouth. Kneeling before the child, he held forth his arms.
“Baby want to go by-by?” he said, and tenderly lifting the little man, he bore him away, while the men looked on in silence.
Half an hour later the man who peeked through the keyhole reported that Barney was singing the youngster to sleep. The words of the song are not readily conveyed, but they sounded like—