His tone implied that the dullness of people in general was simply beyond him.  “An’ you haven’t got a right sort of mincin’ machine.  It’s wrong.  Its parts are the wrong shape.  I’ve been hammerin’ them, tryin’ to make them right, but they’re made wrong.”

Mrs. Brown was past expostulating.  “Take them all down to the kitchen to cook,” she said.  “She’s waiting for them.”

On the stairs William met Aunt Lucy carrying her volume of sermons.

“It’s not quite the same as the spoken word, William, dear,” she said.  “It hasn’t the force.  The written word doesn’t reach the heart as the spoken word does, but I don’t want you to worry about it.”

William walked on as if he had not heard her.

It was Aunt Jane who insisted on the little entertainment after tea.

“I love to hear the dear children recite,” she said.  “I’m sure they all have some little recitation they can say.”

Barbara arose with shy delight to say her piece.

    “Lickle bwown seed, lickle bwown bwother,
     And what, pway, are you goin’ to be? 
     I’ll be a poppy as white as my mother,
     Oh, DO be a poppy like me! 
     What, you’ll be a sunflower?  Oh, how I shall miss you
     When you are golden and high! 
     But I’ll send all the bees up to tiss you. 
     Lickle bwown bwother, good-bye!”

She sat down blushing, amid rapturous applause.

Next Jimmy was dragged from his corner.  He stood up as one prepared for the worst, shut his eyes, and—­

    “Licklaxokindness lickledeedsolove—­
     make—­thisearfaneden
liketheeav’nabovethasalliknow.”

he gasped all in one breath, and sat down panting.

This was greeted with slightly milder applause.

“Now, William!”

“I don’t know any,” he said.

“Oh, you do,” said his mother.  “Say the one you learnt at school last term.  Stand up, dear, and speak clearly.”

Slowly William rose to his feet.

     “It was the schooner Hesperus that sailed the wintry sea,”

he began.

Here he stopped, coughed, cleared his throat, and began again.

     “It was the schooner Hesperus that sailed the wintry sea.”

“Oh, get on!” muttered his brother, irritably.

[Illustration:  “IT WAS THE HESPER SCHOONERUS THAT SAILED THE WINTRY SEA AN’ I’M NOT GOIN’ ON IF ETHEL’S GOIN’ TO KEEP GIGGLIN’.”]

“I can’t get on if you keep talkin’ to me,” said William, sternly.  “How can I get on if you keep takin’ all the time up sayin’ get on?  I can’t get on if you’re talkin’, can I?”

“It was the Hesper Schoonerus that sailed the wintry sea an’ I’m not goin’ on if Ethel’s goin’ to keep gigglin’.  It’s not a funny piece, an’ if she’s goin’ on gigglin’ like that I’m not sayin’ any more of it.”

“Ethel, dear!” murmured Mrs. Brown, reproachfully.  Ethel turned her chair completely round and left her back only exposed to William’s view.  He glared at it suspiciously.