"Hold on, Jimmy," exclaimed Alfred good- naturedly, and he laid a
detaining hand on his friend's shoulder. "Where are you going?"
"I'll be back," stammered Jimmy weakly, edging his way toward the
door, and contriving to keep his back toward Alfred.
"Wait a minute," said Alfred jovially, as he let his hand slip
onto Jimmy's arm, "you haven't told me the news yet."
"I'll tell you later," mumbled Jimmy, still trying to escape.
But Alfred's eye had fallen upon a bit of white flannel dangling
below the bottom of Jimmy's ulster, it travelled upward to
Jimmy's unusually rotund figure.
"What have you got there?" he demanded to know, as he pointed
toward the centre button of Jimmy's overcoat.
"Here?" echoed Jimmy vapidly, glancing at the button in question,
"why, that's just a little----" There was a faint wail from the
depths of the ulster. Jimmy began to caper about with
elephantine tread. "Oochie, coochie, oochie," he called
excitedly.
"What's the matter with you?" asked Alfred. The wail became a
shriek. "Good Heavens!" cried the anxious father, "it's my boy."
And with that he pounced upon Jimmy, threw wide his ulster and
snatched from his arms Jimmy's latest contribution to Zoie's
scheme of things.
As Aggie had previously remarked, all young babies look very much
alike, and to the inexperienced eye of this new and overwrought
father, there was no difference between the infant that he now
pressed to his breast, and the one that, unsuspected by him, lay
peacefully dozing in the crib, not ten feet from him.
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