cheating in only paying fifty cents. Each nap was worth that. I wish I
could engage you by the year!" And she gave me such a squeeze I almost
lost my breath.

But they are funny, those Moon children. Sarah Sue is the oldest, and
nobody ever knows what Sarah Sue is going to say.

Yesterday I made them tell me what they were going to buy for their
mother's and father's Christmas presents, and the things they said were
queer. As queer as the presents some grown people give each other.

"I'm going to give father a set of tools," said Bobbie. "I saw 'em in
Mr. Blakey's window, and they'll cut all right. They cost eighty-five
cents."

"What are you going to give your father tools for?" I asked. "He's not a
boy."

"But I am." And Bobbie jumped over a chair on Billy's back. "You said
yourself you ought always to give a person a thing you'd like to have,
and I'd like those tools. They're the bulliest set in Yorkburg. I'm
going to give mother a little yellow duck. That's at Mr. Blakey's, too."

"It don't cost but five cents," said Sarah Sue, and she looked at Bobbie
as if he were not even the dust of the earth. Then she handed me her
list.

"But, Sarah Sue," I said, after I'd read it, "you've got seventy-five
cents down here for your mother and only fifty for your father. Do you
think it's right to make a difference?"