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 for a baby to be laid all alone on a pillow and any old bottle propped into its mouth. It ain’t propped with Jamie, ’cause I hold it, and it’s a good thing this happened while there’s no school, ’cause I’m tellin’ you that you wouldn’t believe all the things I do when there ain’t anybody looking. I can hold the bottle, and I put my arm around Jamie so’s maybe I can kind of fool him into thinking he’s got the same stream of love along with his milk that our Jimmy got. I tell you, our Jamie is just keen. My goodness! there I’ve gone and used Nannette’s word! That’s the only adjective Nannette knows. Her shoes are keen, and her dress is keen, and her hair-cut is keen, and the party is keen, and the picture is keen, and I’ve heard it so much I hope to goodness I ain’t goin’ to go and get keen, too!”

Jamie laughed.

“You don’t have to ‘get keen,’ Mr. Scout Master,” he said. “You’ve been perfectly keen ever since you’ve been born!”

The little Scout was evidently pleased. There was a slight increase in height; there was a funny toss of the head.

“Well, who’s going to shake dice with the right kind of a swing, and manage a bunch of Scouts, and do a whole lot of other things that I been up against all my life, and not be pretty keen? I’m keen on this place, I can tell you that! I’m about dead for it. I was telling Mother this morning that the very minute I get through ‘readin’ and writin’ and ‘rithmetic,’ I’m going to come here and get on my job. She says I’m going to college, but there