baptism." Well, parson, he thess looked at me up an' down for a
minute, like ez ef he s'picioned I was wanderin' in my mind, but
he didn't faze me. I thess kep' up my argiment. Says I: "Parson,"
says I, speakin' thess ez ca'm ez I am this minute--"Parson," says
I, "his little foot is mighty swole, an' so'e, an' that splinter--
thess s'pose he was to take the lockjaw an' die--don't you reckon
you might do it where he sets--from where you stand?"

Wife, she was cryin' by this time, an' parson, he claired his
th'oat an' coughed, an' then he commenced walkin' up an' down, an'
dreckly he stopped, an' says he, speakin' mighty reverential an'
serious:

"Lookin' at this case speritually, an' as a minister o' the
Gospel," says he, "it seems to me thet the question ain't so much
a question of DOIN' ez it is a question of WITHHOLDIN'. I don't
know," says he, "ez I've got a right to withhold the sacrament of
baptism from a child under these circumstances or to deny sech
comfort to his parents ez lies in my power to bestow."

An', sir, with that he stepped out to the end o' the po'ch, opened
his book ag'in, an' holdin' up his right hand to'ards Sonny,
settin' on top o' the bean-arbor in the rain, he commenced to read
the service o' baptism an' we stood proxies--which is a sort o' a
dummy substitutes--for whatever godfather an' mother Sonny see fit
to choose in after life.

Parson, he looked half like ez ef he'd laugh once-t. When he had
thess opened his book and started to speak, a sudden streak o'
sunshine shot out an' the rain started to ease up, an' it looked