"
"I ain't no school-teacher," said Tom, "an' I ain't learned no fancy
ways of talkin'!"
"I don't expect you to tell me mor'n you know," said the parent, "but
if you've got the same flesh an' blood as me, you'll stand by me when
I'm bothered. The puppies of a dog would do that much for their parent
in trouble."
Tom did not answer; he sulked a little while, but finally entered the
shop with his father and sat down, searched his mind a few moments, and
then recalled and repeated two injunctions which his last teacher had
most persistently urged upon her pupils,--that they should not drop
letters from the ends of words, nor say "ain't" or "hain't." Then Sam
devoted himself to practice by talking aloud, and Tom became so amused
by the changes in his father's intonation that he finally was obliged
to go home and tell his mother and Mary.
"Stop that,--right away!" exclaimed Mrs. Kimper, as soon as Tom got
fairly into his story. "Your father ain't goin' to be laughed at in his
own house, by his own family, while I'm around to stand up for him."
"Oh, stuff!" exclaimed Tom, in amazement. Then he laughed as he
reverted to his father's efforts at correct pronunciation, and
continued his story. Suddenly he was startled by seeing his mother
snatch a stump of a fire-shovel from the hearth and brandish it over
his head.
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