"There was a kind of a little pause at this, all but Mis' Sykes. Mis' Sykes don't pause easy. She spoke right back, sort of elevating one temple:—
"'The object of this meeting as the chair understands it,' says she, 'is to discuss money spending, not idees.'
"But I didn't pay no more attention than as if I'd been a speaker in public life. And Mis' Toplady and Christopher, coming back to the room just then, I spoke to him and took a-hold of his little shoulder.
"'Chris,' I says, 'tell 'em what you're going to be when you grow up.'
"The little boy stood up with his back against the door-casing, and he spoke back between peppermints:—
"'I'm going to drive the loads of hay,' he declares himself.
"'A little bit ago,' I says to 'em, 'he was going to be a cream-puff man, and keep a church and manufacture black velvet for people's coffins. Think of all them futures—not to spend time on other possibilities. Don't it seem like we'd ought to keep him around here somewheres and help him decide? Don't it seem like what he's going to be is resting with us?'
"But now Mis' Sykes spoke out in her most presidential tone.
"'It would be perfectly impossible,' she says, 'for Sodality to spend its money on the child or on anybody else that's living. Our constitution says we shall work for Cemetery.'