Page:Samantha on Children's Rights.djvu/214

 "Why, mother, you have been talkin' about it all the mornin'."

But Tamer sez, "One more word out of your head, young man, like that, and I will shet you up in a dark room."

They wuz kinder still for a minute, and I knew that the mornin' glory eyes wuz shot up under the burnin' scorn of his Ma's axent, and then, for I wuz nighest the winder, I hearn Jack say, in a low voice, "I think I shall marry your grandmother, Delight."

I felt the compliment deeply, to think I wuz the first choice of that innocent heart. But it seemed even at that age the feminine mind wuz more educated in the suitability of marriage than the more opposite sex. Delight sez, "Oh, you tan't."

"Why not?" sez Jack, impatient.

"Betause she is too old."

"Well, then I shall marry father."

"Oh, you tan't," sez Delight.

"Why?"

"Betause he is a man."

"Well, then I will marry you."

"Oh, you tan't!"

"Why not?"

"Betause I am too young to marry."

And then Jack sez, impatient and loud, "Well, if some are too young and some too old, who can I marry?"

And Tamer heard that last word, and she sprung to the winder and leaned half out of it, and sez, "If you don't stop such talk instantly, Jack, I will call that bad man round the corner to come and take your head right off!" And then she sez, sinkin' back in her chair, "Oh, dear me! what a job it is to bring up children right."