"like a Major!"

The boys, gaining more and more confidence, were now close at her
knee, and watched the process with eager eyes.

"He's swallering like anything!" cried Lemuel. "I can see him do it
with his throat, same as anybody."

"See him grab the spoon!" said Joseph. "My! ain't he strong? Can he
talk, mother?"

"Joe, you chuckle-head!" said Adam, who was sixteen, and knew most
things. "How can he talk, when he hasn't got any teeth?"

"Uncle 'Rastus hasn't got any teeth," retorted Joseph, "and he talks
like a buzz-saw."

"Hush, Joseph!" said Mother Golden, reprovingly. "Your Uncle 'Rastus
is a man of years."

"Yes, mother!" said Joseph, meekly.

"Baby _has_ got a tooth, too, Adam!" Mother Golden continued,
triumphantly. "I feel it pricking through the gum this minute. And
he so good, and laughing like a sunflower! Did it hurt him, then, a
little precious man? he shall have a nice ring to-morrow day, to
bitey on, so he shall!"

"I suppose, then, he must be as much as a week old," hazarded Adam,
in an offhand tone. "They are never born with teeth, are they,