Sonny, a Christmas Guest

Sir? Yas, sir; we've waited a long time. It's seventeen year, come this spring, sence we married. Our first child could easy 'a' been sixteen year ol', 'stid o' two, ef Sonny'd...

He says he's a-goin' there reg'lar from this time on, an' I b'lieve he will; but wife an' me we talked it over, an' we decided we'd let things stand, an' keep his name down on a...

But talkin' about Sonny being "raised," I told Miss Phoebe thet we'd _haf_ to stop sayin' it about _him_, right or wrong, ez a person can't raise nothin' higher 'n what he is hi...

Th' ain't a sweeter child in'ardly 'n what Sonny is, nowheres, git him to feel right comf'table, an' I know it, an' that's why I have patience with his little out'ard ways.

Boy, you say, doctor? An' she don't know it yet? Then what 're you tellin' _me_ for? No, sir--take it away. I don't want to lay my eyes on it till she's saw it--not if I _am_ it...

From the first day we was married to the day we laid her away under the poplars, the first thing I done on enterin' the house was to wonder where she was an' go an' find her. An...