She'll be very grateful to
you for that mug some day; though, up to the present, all she has done
to it is to dint its side one day by dropping it against the corner of
the fender when it was given her to play with. You did your duty in
the matter of a mug, and I'm not suggesting for a moment that you
should give her another. When I reminded you that you are her
god-father, I merely wanted to suggest that you ought to take some
little interest in her health and education."
"But I don't know what babies ought to eat."
"What you really mean is that you don't care. You're so wrapped up in
this miserable local squabble with Simpkins about a salmon that you've
lost all interest in the wider subjects which are occupying the
attention of the world."
"Come now, J. J. Your baby--she's a very nice baby and all that. But
really--"
"I won't talk about her any more if she bores you. I thought, and
hoped, that she might interest you. That's the reason I started her as
a topic of conversation. As she doesn't, I'll drop her again, at once.
But what am I to do? I began this evening with a literary allusion,
and found that you'd never heard of Longfellow's 'Village Blacksmith.
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