For several months Deacon Tadpole’s little son, Tommy, had made constant
and repeated reference to the fact that he had no little baby brother or
sister to play with. One day, when he was feeling unusually sad over his
misfortune, he said to his father,----
“Papa, I ain’t got no little baby brother to play with--you might at
least buy me a little pony.”
“Papa can’t buy a pony, son;” said the deacon. “A pony costs too much. I
thought you wanted a little brother or sister.”
“I do,” said Tommy, “but if I can’t get what I want I’m willing to take
what I can get.”
“But, you would rather have a little brother than a pony, wouldn’t you?”
asked Mr. Tadpole.
Tommy thought awhile and then said he thought he would rather have a
little baby brother than to have a pony.
“You see,” he said, “it costs so much to keep a pony, and we would have
to build a stable for him, wouldn’t we, papa?”
“Yes,” answered his father, “and we haven’t got any room in the backyard
for a stable.”
“And we’d have to buy hay, too,” said the child.
“Yes,” said his father.
“Well, I’d rather have the little brother.”
[Illustration: “PAPA, WON’T YOU BUY ME A LITTLE PONY?”]
So the matter was left in abeyance until a month ago, when little Tommy
was told one morning that a little brother had come to him.
He was delighted. He danced around in the hall and made such a racket on
the stairs that the nurse threatened to have him sent away. When he was
permitted to see the baby, Tommy went into ecstasies. He wanted to kiss
the baby, and cried because they wouldn’t let him hold it in his arms.
But Tommy’s enthusiasm for the new baby began to wear off in about a
week’s time. It was always, “Sh-sh! Sh-sh! You’ll wake the baby,” or
“Tommy, you must be more quiet!” or “You can’t come in this room now!”
In fact, the little baby brother seemed to be interfering with little
Tommy’s fun to such an extent that he decided to go to his father and
see if some new arrangement could not be made. Tommy found his father in
the library. He ran to Deacon Tadpole and climbed upon his knee, and
said:
“Papa, I don’t believe I want my little brother any more. I can’t have
any fun with him. I’ll tell you what let’s do. Let’s trade him for a
pony.”
“Oh, we couldn’t do that,” said the deacon.
Tommy was silent for a time. Then he said:
“Well, I don’t suppose we could find anybody that would want to trade a
pony for him, but don’t you think you could trade him for a goat?”