Of co’se we put the timepiece into his hands quick ez we could onclinch ‘em, an’ sent for you.  But quick ez he see the clock, he come thoo.  But you was already gone for, then.

His gran’ma she got considerable fretted because he’s broke off the long han’ o’ the clock; but I don’t see much out o’ the way about that.  Ef a person thess remembers thet the long han’ is the short han’—­why, ’t ain’t no trouble.

An’ she does make ‘im so contented an’ happy!  Thess look at his face, now!  What is the face-vally of a clock, I like to know, compared to that?

[Illustration:  “Quick ez he see the clock, he come thoo.”]

But of co’se the ol’ lady she’s gettin’ on in years, and then she’s my wife’s mother, which makes her my direc’ mother-in-law; an’ so I’m slow to conterdic’ anything she says, an’ I guess her idees o’ regulatin’ childern—­not to say clocks—­is sort o’ diff’rent to wife’s an’ mine.  She goes in for reg’lar dis_cip_line, same ez she got an’ survived in her day; an’ of co’se, ez Sonny come to her ez gran’son the same day he was born to us ez plain son, we never like to lift our voices ag’in anything she says.

She loves him thess ez well ez we do, only on a diff’rent plan.  She give him the only spankin’ he’s ever had—­an’ the only silver cup.

Even wife an’ me we had diff’rent idees on the subjec’ o’ Sonny’s raisin’; but somehow, in all our ca’culations, we never seemed to realize that he’d have idees.

Why, that two-year-old boy settin’ there regulatin’ that clock warn’t no mo’ ’n to say a pink spot on the piller ‘fo’ he commenced to set fo’th his idees, and he ain’t never backed down on no principle thet he set fo’th, to this day.

For example, wife an’ me, why, we argued back an’ fo’th consider’ble on the subjec’ of his meal-hours, ez you might say, she contendin’ for promiskyus refreshment an’ me for schedule time.

This, of co’se, was thess projeckin’ ‘fo’ the new boa’der ac-chilly arrived, He not bein’ here yet, we didn’t have much to do but speculate about him.  Lookin’ back’ards now, it seems to me we couldn’t’a’ had nothin’ to do, day or night, ‘fo’ he come.

But, ez I was sayin’, she was for meals at all hours, an’ I was for the twenty-minutes-for-refreshment plan, an’ we discussed it consider’ble, me always knowin’, but never lettin’ on, thet of co’se she, havin’ what you might call a molopoly on the restaurant, could easy have things her own way, ef she’d choose.

But, sir, from the time he looked over that bill o’ fare an’ put his finger on what he’d have, an’ when, that boy ain’t never failed to call for it, an’ get it, day ’r night.

But, talkin’ ’bout the clock, it did seem funny for him to keep her goin’ ’thout no key.

But somehow he’d work it thet that alarm ‘d go off in the dead hours o’ night, key or no key, an’ her an’ me we’d jump out o’ bed like ez ef we was shot; and do you b’lieve thet that baby, not able to talk, an’ havin’ on’y half ‘is teeth, he ain’t never failed to wake up an’ roa’ out a-laughin’ ever’ time that clock ’d go off in the night!