Not Tommy Brown, but Brown Tommy. He was all in brown from tip to toe.
His hair was brown by nature, and the sun had browned his face and
hands. His eyes were a lovely dark brown. He went on a journey on the
cars with his mamma, and this is the way he was dressed. He had a
brown merino dress, kilt skirt and jacket, with rows and rows of
brown buttons all over it; there were two pockets in the jacket; his
brown cloth gloves were peeping out of one, and the corner of his
handkerchief, that hung out of the other, had a brown flower on it.
His stockings were all brown, and his waterproof cape that was hanging
on his shoulders was just the color of his stockings. Then he had a
Centennial hat, three-cornered, such as old soldiers used to wear a
hundred years ago; it had a long brown plume on it. This was Brown
Tommy.
How did he act? Well, not so nicely as he looked, I am sorry to say.
On the cars, in the seat before him, was a lady who tried to talk with
him, but he saw fit not to answer any of her questions. She seemed to
think he was a timid little boy, who must be coaxed into knowing her;
so she talked on, in a pleasant winning voice. At last she turned to
his mamma, and said: "Your little boy _can_ talk, I suppose, or is he
too young?" Just that moment, up spoke Brown Tommy, and what he said
was: "Did you ever count all the buttons on your dress, or don't you
know how to count so many?" This seemed to astonish the lady very
much. Her dress was trimmed in the new fashion, with rows and rows of
buttons, and Tommy, who is rather mixed up in his counting, seemed to
think that it would take a very smart woman to count them all. Having
once found his tongue, he kept on pouring out the questions till the
lady must have wondered what had become of his timidity. He asked her
what was the name of the place where she lived, and how many churches
there were, and whether she went to church every Sunday, and whether
she sat as still as a mouse. By the time they reached their journey's
end, Brown Tommy and the lady knew each other very well; at least, he
knew all about her. She said she had never been asked so many
questions before in her life.
[Illustration]