“I believe I understand why he gives them all the same name,” replied the School-teacher.
The woman came closer to the man and the child. Her eyes took on an expression of deep inquiry.
“What do you reckon is the reason? I've thought about it often.”
“I think it's because a bird, a fish and a mouse all appear to him to have the same motion, to wiggle.”
The woman's face cleared. “I never thought of that. I reckon that is it. But now, he's got names that ain't like the things at all. Because he calls milk 'bugala' and there ain't no such word as 'bugala.' An' if it's sour or anything he calls it 'nim bugala.'”
The woman recalled with the word, the morning when, to wean him, she had blackened her breast with charcoal, and the child had pushed away the blackened breast with his little hand and said, “nim bugala.”
“And he calls everything else to eat 'A B.' Now why would he call milk 'bugala' an' bread an' butter 'A B'?”
The School-teacher saw that this mystery attaching to the child was dear to the woman, and he could not disturb it.
“Little children are very wonderful,” he said.
“They are wonderful,” the woman continued. “Just think of the things they learn when they are real little.”
She jerked her head toward the dog remaining behind her in the road.
“Why, he learned Jim's name when he was awful little. He called him 'Nim' an' that's purty near right.”
“I'd like to know if his word 'nim,' like he says 'nun bugala,' has anything to do with Jim's name. It sounds like it, but I don't see how it could be, because 'nim' means something that he don't like, an' he does like Jim. He's powerful fond of Jim.”
The School-teacher thoughtfully considered the problem.
“It might be that he has watched you give Jim the things that you did not want to eat yourself, and so he came to the conclusion that all such food belonged to Jim. It would not mean that he did not like Jim. It would only mean that the things that did not taste right to him ought to be given to Jim. They were not good things, they were 'nim' things.”
“Dear me,” she said, “just think of him putting things together like that, an' him so little?”
Then she looked up at the man with a sort of wonder.
“Why, you understand him better than I do, an' I'm his mother. Maybe you're married an' got a little boy of your own.”